Still Alive Inside
by KDS2
Summary: It's been three weeks since the purple dragon of legend sacrificed himself to save his friends, and all of Warfang. As our characters recover slowly, Ember finds a mysterious young dragon who looks no older then her and her friends. Just who is this guy? And why does he look and act strikingly similar to our deceased purple friend?
1. Chapter 1

Chapter 1

 **KDS2: Hey oooh everybody, this is my first story- well, the first story I've posted on here so I would like some critizism to know what's right and what's not so can you do that for me? Thanks!**

 **Spyro: So what's this story about?**

 **KDS2: You'll see...**

 **Cynder: I don't like the sound of that.**

 **KDS2: Oh don't worry, you'll have your happy moments.**

 **Ember: Yaay!**

 **Sparx: Why are they here?**

 **KDS2: Who?**

 **Sparx: Ember,Flame,Bianca, and Zoe?**

 **KDS2: Cause I like to include those guys in my stories with you.**

 **Spyro: Can you at least change Ember's obbsesion with me?**

 **KDS2: Nope, sorry but I like to keep it to the original so you'll have to deal with it.**

 **Spyro: GAH WHY?!**

 **Ember: Why? Well because it shows that nothing can seperate us!**

 **Cynder: Except me.**

 **Ember: Oh puh-lease we both know that Spyro and I are ment to be together.**

 **KDS2: Accually this is a Spyro x Cynder story so no, and besides I've decided to listen to Spyro just this once. But only because it's my first story.**

 **Ember: aww :(.**

 **Spyro: Yay!**

 **KDS2: Don't worry Ember you'll have someone better, I promise.**

 **Flame: Hey don't get any ideas.**

 **KDS2: Too late.**

 **Flame: DAMN!**

 **KDS2: Well let's get on with the show already, Bianca! Disclaimer!**

 **Bianca: KDS2 owns nothing with the exception of this story, TLOS Spyro,Cynder,Hunter, and Sparx belong to Sierra, or Insomniac, and Flame,Ember,Zoe, and myself belong to Sony...I think. You know what? Screw it, every character belongs to their respective owners, oh yeah and this is rated T because reasons.**

* * *

 _"If you're alone, I'll be your shadow."_

 _"If you want to cry, I'll be your shoulder."_

 _"If you want a hug, I'll be your pillow."_

 _"If you need to be happy, I'll be your smile."_

 _"But anytime you need a friend."_

 **"I'll Just be me."**

 _Seven_ weeks.

Seven weeks since the defeat of Malefore...

 _Six_ weeks.

Six weeks since our heroes returned home...

 _Five_ weeks.

Five weeks since our group of _Spyro_ , _Cynder_ , _Sparx_ , and _Hunter_ met _Flame_ , _Ember_ , _Zoe_ , and _Bianca_...

 _Four_ weeks.

Four weeks since the whole entire race of dragons was united by Spyro and Cynder.

 _Three_ weeks.

Three weeks since the attack on the city of Warfang by, and defeat of, a Norc named _Gnasty Gnorc._

 _ **Three weeks.**_

Three weeks since **The Purple Dragon Of Legend sacrificed himself to defeat the norc and his army.**

Flame stared off despondedly into the distance, he currently was standing on the west wall of the dragon city known as Warfang, he seemed lost in thought, no doubt thinking about all of his friends, including the deceased. Flame was a fire dragon, proven by his vibrant red scales with yellow underbelly and horns which were straight and did not curve in any way, he also had fire red eyes and in terms of body type, was relatively similar to Spyro, only differance being Flame was a little shorter but was stockyer, and the horns that went from his forhead to his tail were connected. Now personality wise there was a huge differance. Flame was confident, a little arrogant, and sometimes unpredictable, he doesn't back down easily and is very hard-headed and at times short sighted, he is also naive to a certain degree and is slow on some things as well as gets a little nervous around girls, but underneath all this is a heart of gold.

" _I can't believe it's been three weeks since_ _ **He**_ _died_..." He thought, before turning towards the city, taking note of the damage from the fight. Some buildings where relatively fine, some where missing parts of their walls or roof, some lost their upper half entirely, and some where nothing but rubble, and almost all of them had scorch marks, no doubt from burnt out fires. Standing in the middle is where the -surprisingly unharmed- temple resided along with all of his friends. "We've all taken it pretty hard haven't we?" He said out loud to no one in particular, taking one last deep breath, Flame took off towards the temple flaping his wings as he stared despondently at the temple. " _Everybody had his or her way of dealing with it, but..._ " Flame inwardly sighed " _ **She's**_ _the only one who can't seem to let him go... No matter how much it hurts her_." The dragoness he was refering to was none other then Cynder, the former Terror of the Skies herself who, since the death of a certain purple dragon had locked herself in the room they had once shared, and only comes out to grab her food before going back to her room to eat.

" _This has got to change, one way or another._ " Flame finaly decided, before speeding up and flying into the temple, where Ember and Sparx awaited him. " Hey Fire!" Called Sparx. Sparx was Spyro's Surrogate brother, he was a small dragonfly that glowed a almost blinding bright yellow, he and the purple dragon both hatched on the same day at the swamp near the Silver River and the two were inseperable, going on adventures left and right and never leaving each other's side, well untill Spyro's passing. When it happened Sparx had taken it almost as hard as Cynder had. What brought him out of it was he eventually began to think _What would Spyro want for me?_ and after asking each of his friends the same thing, they all began to pull out of it also, well, all except for Cynder. "I see your back, how was the wall? Boring? Lacking? Unintresting? Well I wouldn't be suprised, alot of things and places are like that without The Great Sparx around to lighten things up." the dragonfly said confidently, sporting his usual cocky grin.

" _The Great Sparx?_ " Flame froze in the air and turned his full attention on Sparx, he raised an scalebrow at the dragonfly before going back to his original train of thought.

"Actually, it was pretty peaceful." Replied the red dragon replied as he landed infront of the duo. "And Beautiful." Ember almost immediately walked up to him a bright smile on her face. "Really?" She beamed excitedly. Ember, like Flame, is a fire dragon, but instead of his vibrant red, she had bright pink scales, she also had a yellow underbelly and yellow horns like Flame, but unlike said dragon her horns curved upwards and towards each other, she also has a upside down yellow heart as her tail blade and doesn't have the spikes that went from forhead to tail. Ember is a curious free spirit, she loves to have fun and at certain times can't take anything seriously, she get's attached to things too easily and is very headstrong, as a fire dragon she has that stubborness all fire dragons share -once she sets her mind on something there is no stopping her- though it seems not as potent with her, she seems also to be the only one calm enough to stop Flame when he's on an anger fueled rampage. When she and Flame first met Spyro, she instantly became obsessed with him, much to his,Cynder's, and Flame's chargin, and would try to be next to the poor dragon almost 24/7. This obsession gained her a feirce rivalry with Cynder over the legend's heart; **(** **Though we all know who won that debate** **)** meanwhile Flame and Spyro got along pretty well, almost instantly becoming friends, and rivals; Flame was inspired by Spyro's power, and would always have friendly matches with the purple dragon; all of which of course he lost, but he had good sportsmanship, so no hard feelings were made. He was also inspired by his will to never give up, so much that he would train more than once a day so that at some point, he could defeat his friend in a match/feel worthy enough to stand beside him in battle. But now that their friend is dead, Ember seems to have mellowed out, and Flame too, seems to have lost some of his cockiness, but he became even more determind; training even harder so that one day, he'd be able to take Spyro's role as protecter of the city.

"Maybe you can take me there later!" A small kind smile found it's way on Flame's face as he looked at the dragoness. "Sure I guess." Flame replied sheepishly, he was always a little tiny bit nervous around girls, and Ember and Cynder were no exceptions, though he seems less nervous around the former than the latter. "But it would have to be tommorrow, cause you know, I have training and stuff." He continued hesitantly, his mood slightly dropping, he didn't exactly enjoy disappointing/angering Ember, for she tended to get disturbingly creepy when angry, and heart wrenchingly sad when dissapointed.

Said Dragoness' smile faltered, while at first she though it was cool how determened Flame was on his goal, it sometimes got in the way of their friendship, and used up time they could be using to hang out, and she didn't exacly like that. "Oh, okay then." she replied not as brightly, before her mood shot back up and her smile reappeared. "I guess I'll go check it myself." Ember turned towards the window where her red friend entered and spread her wings to take off. "See you boys later, good luck Flame!" She yelled to Sparx and Flame before taking off towards the west wall where Flame was, said red dragon stared after her for a moment before turned towards Sparx, his smile tunring from a small kind one, into a small sad one.

"How is she?" He addressed, as soon as the sound reached the dragonfly's ears his smirk dissappeared entirely,knowing who Flame was asking for, Flame's sad smile, soon followed for he knew what was going to be said next. "Not good." Sparx sighed, his shoulders and wings dropping as he brought one hand up to rub the back his head. "She still refuses to come out, and the only reason she isn't six feet under is because I give her food and water day in and out." Inside Flame smiled slightly, yes it was a little exaggerated, but that was Sparx for ya; but at the same time it was kinda true, Sparx does bring food and water to her door, and that's about the only time that she ever comes out, though he has a feeling that if Sparx didn't do that, she'd come out on her own to get food, sighing the red dragon looked towards the ground and stared at it sadly. "This needs to change, all of this." Flame muttered, so quietly that Sparx could barely hear. "I hear ya." The dragonfly agreed his shoulders raising slightly for an instant, before dropping down again. "But..." He continued. "...How can they? You of all people know that even if Terror gets out of that room, nothing is gonna be the same, at least not while Spyro's gone." The red dragon sighed, knowing fully that his companion was absolutly correct. Even _if_ they get Cynder to stop brooding in her room, -and that's a big _if_ \- nothing is ever gonna same; she may be walking around but that doesn't mean she won't be depressed, and besides, with Spyro gone, nothing felt completly **right.**

"I know." Flame heaved, his eyes losing some of their spark before burning even brighter as he looked up at his friend. "But we still have got to try. If not for her then for Spyro." With that the fire dragon turned towards the hallway that lead to Cynder's room and started down it. Sparx lingered behind for momment before heading to Flame's side. "Are you sure about this?" The yellow light adressed hesitantly. "You remember the last time we tried right?" He asked. "Of course I do but we can't stop trying, she may not notice it yet but she's counting on us not to." Flame replied. Boy did he remember; last time they tried to get Cynder out of her room, her and Flame ended up in a fight that nearly decimated the whole temple, which The Guardians were not exactly grateful for. But as he said they can't stop, Spyro wouldn't, so neither would Flame.

* * *

Cynder sat ontop of the bed inside her room facing the window staring outside towards the sky, her eyes were red and puffy from all the crying she's done. " _Why._ " she thought sadly. She had asked herself this day after day and still couldn't give herself an answer; she looked at where the sun was setting, signaling afternoon going into night. " _It's already been three weeks._ " The black dragoness turned away from the window and laid her head on her paws staring emotionlessly at the door infront of her before laughing quietly and dryly " _Heh time passes fast when you don't pay attention doesn't it._ " She then started to whimper quietly, she wanted to cry. She wanted to cry so bad but didn't have any tears left to shed, all of them she had let go of days ago and now all she could do was hurt for the fact that she felt alone. Nobody understood her like Spyro did and now he's gone, forever, she feels as if there was nothing left for her; that nothing matters anymore, that she should just die already and get it over with, but every time she's tried to end her pain and suffering something held her back. Almost as if her heart was telling her otherwise.

 _"Thump."_

The former terror of the skies raised her head when she herd a knock on her door, but then ignored it and dropped her head back, she knew already who it was, she had spent so much time in her room having her door knocked on that she could tell who it was just by the knock; Flame would knock hard once, and would continue to knock when no one answered but harder each time, Sparx was a quiet fast triple knock, sounding like someone threw three small rocks at her door simultaniously, Ember would knock twice lightly with a small pause inbetween each knock, and The Guardians would knock twice without a pause in-between, and everyone else would knock once.

 _"THUMP."_

Cynder huffed hard, annoyed at the red dragon who was gradually pounding on her door from the other side. No matter how much she theatened him, hurt him, or ignored him, he wouldn't leave her alone, and his attemps to get her to come out were not only a waste of time in her opinion, but also extremly irratating.

 **"Thump!"**

On the other side Flame was getting ticked, he hated being ignored and now was no differant, slightly behind him Sparx was starting to panic, if Flame kept this up, he was going to break the door down and that would have hell to pay, and at this point he did not want to be on a certain black dragoness' bad side. "Ignore me will you?" he herd Flame mumble and his blood went cold, when Flame says something like that it normally means he's pissed and is going to go full out.

"Hey Fire?" Sparx said nervously and at a quickened pace, trying in vain to divert Flame's attention away from the door. "Maybe we should wait until dinner time you know? Cause then she'd have to come out and then we could-" Sparx never got to finish that sentance.

 **"BANG!"**

Flame rammed the door with his horns so hard that it had no choice but to open, least it be ripped off it's hinges. At the moment of contact both Sparx and Cynder jumped from the sound, and both were sure that the it would attract the attention of anybody near by, and at least one of the Guradians. Cynder turned her head to look at Flame and to say he was pissed would be a MASIVE understatement.

"Good job you moron you broke the door." Cynder said half heartly, trying to sound like her old self that way Flame wouldn't worry. But Flame could easily see through her facade.

"Well sorry _princess_ but I'm afraid I think it's time for you to leave the castle." Flame bit back his temper slightly lowering. Cynder scoffed at him and turned towards the window staring at the sunset again. "Make me."

"I would love to, but a certain _friend_ of ours wouldn't appreciate that."

"Get out Flame." She growled. "You're presence is not welcomed." She turned her head towards the red dragon with a warning look in her eyes but Flame didn't back down, he was too confident and worried for his friend to do so.

"Not without you." Cynder's temper was rising and so was Flame's, at the sight of this Sparx's eyes widened; if nothing was done soon the exact events of a week ago were going to repeat.

"I said get out." Cynder spat out venomiously as she stood up, her eyes -like Flame's- burning with a vicious fire.

"Would Spyro want this for you?" Cynder was appalled, her eyes widening, then dilating as she glared at Flame offendidly. How dare he speak about Spyro like he knew him, he only knew the guy for three weeks, and here he is talking about him as if he knew the purple dragon all his life.

"I am going to ask you one last time, Get. Out." Sparx could swear he could see the Poison boiling up inside Cynder's mouth just as fire was inside Flame's.

"I am going to tell _you_ this one time, Bite Me." At that moment both Flame and Cynder were about let their elements fly, each one determined to enforce their wants on the other, just as their elements were about to leave their mouths, they both herd a scream, and a familiar one at that. Flame's eyes widened and the fire from his mouth disapeared instantly, Cynder just let her poison disapear as well but her expression just changed to a calm one as she watched Flame mutter a certain pink dragoness' name before he bolted out the room with Sparx tailing behind. Cynder just rested her head on her paws again as she stared after them then to the open doors.

" _She might need me._ " Cynder thought. " _Flame can take care of her._ " Her other side thought back. " _But what if he can't get there in time?_ " " _Please, this is Ember we're talking about, Flame will get there in time, and they will be fine._ " _"_ _But what if they aren't?_ " Cynder started to argue with herself, unable to decide weather or not to go, thoughts like _"_ _She's fine."_ and " _but what if it's something serious"_ started to arouse in her mind, finally one side won with the thought of " _what would_ _ **Spyro**_ _do."_ Sighing, the former terror of the skiesstood up, and then, after three weeks, she finally walked out of her room and out the temple, heading to where she herd her pink friend scream, silently hoping she won't be needed.

After Ember took off she immediately went to the west wall to see the view Flame had mentioned, on her way she took a quick look at the inhabitants, Cats, Moles, and Dragons of all kind were wandering about, wether on busness or for some other reason she didn't know nor did she care to. The pink dragoness smiled, Spyro did a good job bringing everyone together, and now for the first time since before the war with Malefor Warfrang was filled with citizens, a single tear theatened to leave Ember's face as she remember all the moments she had with Spyro, yes she was obsessed, but for the most part they treated each other as friends, him more so than her. But none the less she had some of the best moments when the four of them were together, but now with the reason they ended up together gone, a lot of those happy moments seemed impossible to have. Her attention was brought back to reality when she saw the wall were Flame once stood, she started to become exited, no doubt wondering about the view Flame was talking about, she slowed down and landed safely on the wall, looking out at the view over the city, the sight made her eyes widen. The tear was finally released from it's prison and it flowed down Ember's face like it's life depended on it. Flame was right. This is a nice sight to behold, with the sun setting over the huge lake, turning it a hue of orange and blue, with the flowing trees showing the reflections in beautiful patterns, and with the wind blowing gently against the grass and forest, as well as her face, Ember couldn't even find the words in her head as she watched it all in awe from the high point of Warfang's walls.

"Wow~" Was the only thing the astonished pink dragoness could say as she looked at it all, had she seen this before the attack from Gnasty Gnorc she wouldn't be able to believe something so beautiful and peaceful could come from one of the most devastating wars ever. But that's what if it was then, now, she's mesmerized by the view knowing full well that her friend's sacrifice was worth it. After a while, she turned to go back before hearing a distant boom coming from the forest. She turned back towards the forest, her eyes scanning the area, watching for anything in hopes that it will explain the sound, when she saw nothing she sighed and went again to turn to go back before something made her stop, this time it wasn't a sound, she had caught an intresting scent, she looked towards the forest again to smell it better. " _What is that smell?_ " She thought as she stared out. " _It smells bitter, sort of like decay, almost as if someone was-_ " That's when she realised what the smell was. Blood.

" _Oh my god_!" was all she thought as panic shot through her vains, now normally if she was calm she would've flown straight to the Guardians and let them know... But she's not calm, so she flew straight to were she thought the scent was coming from. She flew as fast and as hard as she could, well of course she would, someone's life could be at stake here.

"Please be ok, please be ok, please be ok _Please_ be ok." The normally calm dragoness repeated outloud to herself as she approched the area and looked down to see the source and it made her freeze. It was dragon who looked no older or younger then her, Flame, and Cynder, his scales were a bright whitish Yellow and his underbelly, horns, and wing frame were colored gold, and his wing membrame was orange, he had a leaf shaped tail blade that was also colored gold, most of these details she missed but there was one thing she didn't. The amount of cuts he had. There were small ones all the way up and down his fore and hind legs, he had a couple of medium sized ones on his tail and some on his forhead, almost all of these cuts were bleeding but one cut was what caught her attention the most. The huge tri cut that went across his chest, of course they weren't deep enough to kill but more then deep enough to have it bleed profusely, and create a puddle of blood below the unconscious dragon. Seeing this much blood and the knowing fact that it was a dragon as young as her made Ember do the first thing that came to her mind.

She screamed as loud as she could.

* * *

 **KDS2: And boom! This first chapter is done!**

 **Spyro: Wait. So I'm DEAD!?**

 **Cynder: Why?!**

 **KDS2: Because I decided to, and well don't worry Spyro.**

 **Spyro: Why?**

 **KDS2: You'll see.**

 **Flame: Well what I want to know is who the heck is this guy?**

 **(? is laying down asleep aganst the wall)**

 **KDS2: You'll see.**

 **Ember: And what's gonna happen next? Please tell me?!**

 **KDS2: You'll- Grrr just- JUST WAIT OKAY?!**

 **Everyone: !**

 **KDS2: Thank you. Now readers, if you decided to read this little pasage and the one that's at the begining then you will know that I would like some constructive critisizm on my stories. If ya didn't and just read this one, then now you know. Also I will be releasing one chapter every two weeks at the latest, cause I have a life, as well as Jr. Lifeguard training, and Gym, and my everyday video game time, and I don't want this to feel like a chore. But if I get really focused, and at some points of time get sucked into a working spam, you might get two or more chapters within the time frame. So with that note, thanks for reading and see ya next chapter!**

 **Little** **thing:** **For Spyro and Ember's relationship before he " _Died_ " Think a mixture of Sonic and Amy from the Archive Sonic the Hedgehog comic and Sonic and Amy from the original Sonic game series.**


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

 **KDS2: Well here's the next chapter!**

 **Bianca: About damn time!**

 **Flame: Yeah what the hell took it so long?**

 **Ember: Seriously we've been waiting for just about forever to find out what happens next!**

 **Zoe: And why the heck did you chose one chapter per TWO WEEKS?!**

 **KDS2: You know, I am a 16 going on 17 teenager in the summer time, what you think I don't have a life!?**

 **Flame,Ember, Bianca, and Zoe: No.**

 **KDS2:...**

 **Spyro: let's... Get on with the chapter.**

 **Cynder: As usual KDS2 doesn't own Spyro or any of us, we all belong to our respective owners...**

* * *

Flame was shooting though the hallways like a meteor, with Sparx trailing behind, after they had heard Ember's scream, Flame had assumed the worst and left Cynder's room as fast as his legs could carry him. They had passed the Guardians; who of course herd the bang from the red dragon bursting through Cynder's door, and nearly bullrushed a couple of other Dragons, Moles, and Cheetahs before the duo made it outside. Once they did Flame and Sparx immediately took to the sunset sky towards the west wall, the red dragon beating his wings so hard civilians across the city could hear them clearly.

" _Oh Ancestors please let her be ok._ "

Ember stared at the unconsious dragon, frozen at seeing someone injured so sevearly, not knowing wether or not he was alive.

" _What are you doing?_ " She scolded herself. " _Stop standing around and help him you idiot!_ " Breaking out of her studder, Ember rushed towards the electric dragon, once at his side, she immediately looked around for anything to use to cover the wounds, though after seeing nothing to use, She was going to give up until she had an idea.

" _This is gonna hurt, just please don't wake up._ " She charged up the fire in her throat hoping to cauterize the cuts to give the youngling a chance to live. Just as she was about to spit her fire, a voice called out.

"There you are!" The voice startled her, causing her to yelp, and jump away from the bleeding dragon in surprise, the fire being released from her throat, It just barely missed the half dead dragon, dissolving in the air just as it was about to hit a nearby bush; Ember turned around sheepishly to see Flame landing in the grass with Sparx hovering beside him. Obviously they hadn't noticed the half dead dragon behind her.

"Fl-Flame! Sp-Sparx!" She stutered, suprised to see the red dragon and yellow dragonfly who were giving her accusing looks. "I didn't see you there!"

"Ember why are you studder-" Flame interrogated, until he was cut off as Sparx spotted the unconsious dragon behind Ember. "Who the hell is that!"

"Oh um I... I... I don't know!IjustfoundhimlikethisandIwasgoingtoccauterizehiswoundsbutthenyoucameandtriedtointerrogatedmethensawhimandwellyouknowwhathappenednext!" The scared dragoness shot out in one breath, Flame and Sparx froze for a second, contemplating what their friend just said before the fire dragon ran past the trembling Ember and to the yellow dragon. He put his head against the unconscious dragon's chest,ignoring the blood that now went down his head, listening for any sign that this would not be in vain; he herd a heartbeat, small and weak, but one none the less. Hurrying he tried to get the electric dragon on his back, but couldn't do to his position, looking around, he spotted the frozen dragoness and decided that she would have to do.

"Ember help me carry him." He called, but Ember stayed in her spot, still frozen, wether she herd him or not Flame did not know. Nor did he care. " **Damn it Ember**!"

Said pink dragoness jumped when he screamed, she turned to him quickly to see him with the unconsious dragon half draped across his back, he was struggling to stand when he noticed he had her attention. "Help!"

Ember hurried over to him and with her help they were able to pick him up, and clumsily, with Sparx leading in the now dark sky, the trio took off towards Warfang, leaving a blood trail from where their new companion had previously lay.

Cynder was nearing the west wall, her mind and thoughts on everyone she had passed by, who looked at her like she was a ghost before turning to their own business.

" _I suppose they have a right to be shocked._ " She thought before she unconsciously started to speed up, unnerved by the amount of attention she was getting, she was not used to it, and it wasn't exactly a great feeling. " _But that doesn't mean they should stare..._ " She was about to break into a run to get away from all the stares before a drop of blood hit the ground in front of her; curious, the black dragoness sniffed at it, before more dropped onto her nose then right wing. Finally getting an idea where they are coming from, the former terror of the skies looked up.

"what the..." She muttered as she saw a weird shaped silhouette in the night sky. Taking a closer look she could see five colors of scales and something glowing. She took a closer look at one of the colors, then glanced at the blood drop on the floor before putting two and two together. Flame, Sparx and Ember were carrying an injured creature. The instinct to help took over and Cynder immediately took to the sky towards the trio, and cause of whatever they were carrying, she was able to catch up with no problem, though now she wished she hadn't

"Ember! Flame! Sparx! What happened! And who is that?!" Ember, Sparx and Flame jerked their heads at the familier voice to see Cynder slow down to their pace, flying at to the side of them, and for moments on end they stared at her, shocked at seeing her out of her room.

" **Hey!** Are you listening?!" Cynder yelled after no one answered her. Flame was the first to shake out of it, quite literally, before he looked her in the eye.

"Well what does it look like?!" He said as he gestured -with his head- at the dragon on their back. "Can you help?" Ember asked, as she watched the black dragoness' eyes make their way up to the bleeding dragon on their back before they froze. Cynder had to take a double take at the dragon on their back, starring at the electric dragon. For a split second there she thought she saw a certain friend, before realizing the light yellow scales replacing purple ones.

"Put him on my back, quickly!" Cynder ordered as she lowered herself to fly in between the fire dragons, she raised herself slowly as Flame and Ember lowered the bleeding dragon onto her back. After making sure he was balanced, Cynder used her wind element to break the sound barrier and shoot off like a rocket towards the infirmary, the shock wave throwing Flame and Ember off balance as they were forced to stop, though Sparx was unaffected, and just sped up to catch the black dragoness. After starring off to where Sparx,Cynder and the mysterious dragon disappeared to, Ember turned to Flame, worry etched on her face.

"What now?" She asked and for a moment Flame didn't answer her.

"Now." The red dragon finally answered as he turned to face the pink dragoness, a smirk creeping it's way onto his face. "We go tell the others."

Cynder and Sparx were rocketing through the sky, becoming a blur of black,red, and yellow to the citizens below, their thoughts differant yet the same, one thinking about the yellow dragon on Cynder's back, the other about the one she loved, but both thinking about how similar the unconsious yellow dragon and the deceased purple dragon looked.

" _It's almost as if they're twins._ " they thought before Cynder tried to shake off that train of thought. Aside from Sparx, Spyro didn't have any relatives, he had said that himself. But still, the similarities are impossible not to notice.

The duo's minds were freed from their toubled thoughs as the infirmary came into veiw, the giant red cross on the face of the building being a dead give away. Cynder then used the same winds that boosted her speed to slow her down, as she soared carefully downwards and through the front door with Sparx at her side, as she landed down, they could see dragons, cheetahs, and moles alike moving back and fowards thoughout the room, some walking, some running, but almost all froze when they noticed the former terror of the skies.

"Mi-Miss Cynder!" a female Mole spoke as she walked up to the black dragoness. "W-what brings you here?"

" **No Time!** " Cynder barked as she lowered herself that way the nurse could see the unconsious dragon on her back. "Get him medical attention imediately, I don't know how much longer he can hold on!"

The nurse jumped in suprise when she saw the state of the electricity dragon, she imediately called two dragons over to take him off Cynder's back. When they did the black dragoness felt her shoulders relax and the pain she didn't know was there disappear, as if thanking her for giving them a break.

"Go quickly we have one in critical condition!" The nurse yelled as the two dragons bolted down the hall, making a right when they reached the end. The nurse sighed, then turned to Sparx and Cynder who had worry, and fear drawn all over their faces.

"Thank you for bringing him to our infirmary, we'll take it from here." The mole said in a voice that slightly calmed Sparx, but not Cynder, seeing this the nurse made a small clap that caught her attention.

"It's going to be ok." The nurse reassured. "Those two are the best doctors around, I have faith in them, if anyone can save your friend, it's them. If anything I can take you to a waiting room if you want, that way you can wait and rest instead of standing out here." Cynder went to open her mouth in protest but her glowing companion beat her to it. "Yeah that'll be nice. Thanks!"

The nurse gave a small smile and nod before turning away from the duo. "Right this way."

* * *

"Wait what!?" Yelled the rabbit who Flame and Ember were talking to, this Rabbit's name is Bianca, a sorceress in training who just learned the news of both Cynder and the half dead dragon.

Flame huffed in annoyance, with small fires steaming out his nostrels, the fact that he has to repeat himself was tenacious and boring, seeing this Ember took over and decided to give the abridged version of it.

"While I was on the west wall, I found an injured dragon who looked no older than Flame and I, I was going to cauterize his wounds but Flame and Sparx found me, so with their help we picked him up, and while we were on our way to the infirmary, Cynder appeared, took him, and bolted off with Sparx trailing behind." The pink dragoness explained, the sorceress' took a moment to contemplate before her eyes widened in happiness.

"This is great!" She yelled in her joy. Her reaction caused Flame and Ember to stare at her with accusing and confused looks repectively, noticing this, Bianca quickly refrased her sentence.

"I- I mean, the fact that she's finally out her creepy room! Not the-uhh the you know... _Dying dragon._ "

" I hope that's what you mean, I don't want to find out that you're going to betray us." A low voice joked, Bianca turned around and Flame and Ember leaned around her to see a familiar Cheetah walking towards them.

"Hunter!" All three called in surprise, said cheetah put his hand on his hip as he watched the three scramble towards him.

"So what's this I hear about Cynder?" He asked while watching as Flame was the first to make it to him, before he was pushed aside with a "Hey!" by Ember by accident, who apologized, and then was pushed aside with a "Hey!" by Bianca on purpose. After explaining everything the rabbit heard from Ember to the Cheetah in almost one breath -which surpisingly he was able to understand with no problem-, the four started their walk out the temple and towards the infimary, the group wasn't worried about losing their way as the streets were iluminated by both the moon, and the torches here and there that were placed on the houses.

"Shouldn't we tell the guardians about this?" Hunter asked aloud, Ember looked at him, then turned to Flame. "Yeah wouldn't they want to know?" Ember agreed, Flame thought about it for a moment before shaking his head.

"No, I don't think Cynder would apreciate being bomboarded by the old geezers, we'll have to leave them out of this. At least until we know for sure that Cynder's staying out of her room and not going back to locking herself in there twenty four seven." He said, the others knowing exactly what the red dragon was talking about, nodded in agreement. Whatever this is, they all hope it's enough to keep the black dragoness out of her depression, for ancestors knows she needs to.

Cynder was laying down on the floor of the waiting room, with Sparx laying on her head, no doubt sleeping as she can hear his snores.

" _How can he sleep at a time like this?_ " Cynder thought glancing up a little to try and see the dragonfly. " _Someone can very well be dying, and he's so relaxed about it._ " The black dragoness sighed inwardly, wishing she could be that carefree and get some rest, but knowing that someone her age was sevearly hurt and was essentially getting surgery didn't exactly calm her nerves enough for her to get some sleep.

 **"** _ **And the fact that he looks like Spyro doesn't help either.**_ **"** Said a voice inside her head. Cynder jumped at the hearing the unknown voice, it sounded demonic, and echoed as it spoke, it took her a minute before realising the kind of voice it had. It was similar to Dark Spyro's, exept it was her voice it sounded like. Even though she didn't want to she had to agree with it this time, the fact that physically the unknown dragon looked exactly like Spyro -save for the purple scales- didn't exactly help calm her down. The black dragoness sighed tiredly, hoping that this will be over quickly so she can go back to her room, but now that she can think about it, Flame was right. Is her staying in her room all the time, always in pain, and never allowing anyone to help, what Spyro would want for her? Would her essentially killing herself and her relationships make Spyro happy? Even though she didn't want to she knew the answer as well as Flame would. Spyro would want for her to be happy, to move on, and maybe even find someone else that she can be as close to as she was with him, but how can she do that? How can she just open up to someone who she had just met _if_ she ever meets him, and even if she found someone, they would never be as close. She and Spyro had gone through so much together, the pain, the happiness, the moments of weakness just to be brought back up by the other, it had made their bond so strong no one else's could compare, how can she just move on and forget everything they had done together? Everything that **he** had done for her?

" _I can't._ " She thought, her eyes watering and letting warm drops down her face as she started to breathe in and out sharply. " _I can't move on, it hurts too much. I can't just forget Spyro, I can't just forget the one person I loved with all my heart, I just can't._ " The black dragoness started to cry quietly, her shoulders shaking and her breathing uncontrolled, tears now flowing from her eyes like rivers, she continued to cry for minutes on end, until she felt a hand on her shoulder, and someone hugging her, she breathed in sharply, and raise her head up, when she did she could only see pink scales as Ember hugged her, she looked to her left to see Flame right there and Hunter with his hand on her shoulders, Bianca standing behind him, all with their own kind smiles, even Sparx who had just woken up was floating next to Flame with a kind smirk.

"It's ok." She herd Ember say, and Cynder turned her head back straight to see Ember looking her in her eyes.

"It's all gonna be ok." The pink dragoness reassured. "We are all there for you, no matter what we will always be on your side. We are friends, and that means we all stick together, through thick and thin, and nothing can change that." Cynder started to cry harder as she pulled Ember in an embrace, now letting all of her tears free, and soon everyone joined in on the hug, all of them giving her a kind, calming embrace and Cynder couldn't help but think how lucky she was, she had shunned them, neglected them, and hurt them, and still here they are, comforting her, and bringing her back up when she was at her weakest.

"Thank you." The black dragoness forced out through strangled gasps. "All of you."

* * *

 **KDS2: Boom another chapter done! You know, now that I think about it I might change it to a chapter per week.**

 **Zoe: Thank you! And why haven't I come in yet?**

 **KDS2: You'll be in soon.**

 **Cynder: Why am I acting like a weak pansie?**

 **KDS2: It's just a phase, you'll go back to normal soon enough.**

 **Hunter: Well I have one more question.**

 **KDS2: ? Well what is it?**

 **Hunter: Who's the new dragon?**

 **KDS2: Wait ok? You'll find out next chapter.**

 **Bianca: OK!**

 **KDS2: Well readers, you know how I said I might post another chapter early if I get into a working spam, weeeellllll lets just say that happened and now you have the second chapter! As always constructive criticism is appreciated. Take care and see you next chapter!**


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

 **KDS2: Well here's the next chapter!**

 **Flame: Jesus Christ! It's been two weeks! What the hell man!?**

 **KDS2: I know and I'm sorry for being late, I had a lot of stuff to do but here I am!**

 **Ember: Exactly! Better late than never Flame!**

 **Flame: Yeah yeah whatever.**

 **KDS2: Alright now that that's settled. Let's get started. Spyro! Disclaimer!**

 **Spyro: KDS2 Doesn't own us, only the fan characters, and this story.**

* * *

Cynder, Flame, Ember, and the others were sitting -in case of the dragons, laying, and Sparx floating- in the lounging room, waiting for news, good or bad, about the new dragon they had found. Every now and then Flame would look at the star littered sky, noticing that some glow brighter than others, Cynder would momentarily glance at the door, hoping that the nurse that led her and Sparx there would come out with good news, though judging from the state of the mysterious dragon when she brought him in here, that was a long shot.

"I hope everything's alright." Spoke up a voice. Cynder turned towards the speaker, to see Bianca giving them all a expectant look.

"What?" She asked "Don't you too? I mean he could be a very nice dragon, it would suck if we never get to actually meet him." The rabbit explained, the others thought about It, before nodding in agreement.

"My question is, what the hell happened?" Flame spoke up, Cynder turned to him, and went to reply, but couldn't think of anything to say, though Hunter did.

"I don't know what happened." He answered, before continuing. "But whoever did this must be pretty powerful." Ember looked at Hunter, a bemused expression on her face.

"Oh? How can you tell?" The Cheetah looked onwards, a thoughtful and observant expression on his face. "Think about it. I have seen first hand many times, how powerful a dragon as young as you few are, so knowing this, that means whoever did that to our mysterious dragon, must be very powerful indeed." Sparx thought about it, before speaking up.

"Or this dragon could just be weak."

"No" Flame quickly interjected. "I've felt his elemental energy, it's enormous, he is just as strong, if anything stronger than us. In fact if I didn't know any better, judging from the amount of elemental energy I felt, he's just as strong as Spyro!" Everyone froze at hearing this, a dragon as strong as Spyro? Yeah it wasn't impossible, but it was improbable, but if it were true, then that means, whoever did that to him must be powerful indeed. Ember went to speak up before the door was suddenly pushed open. The group looked up to see the same nurse and the same two dragons from earlier come through, all with proud and happy expressions, the nurse looked at the newcomers in the waiting room, before realizing they were Cynder's friends. One of the dragons (a red one) spoke the answer to the question almost everyone in the room was silently asking

"We did it." he simply said, and instantly, almost as if someone hit a switch, everyone's mood lifted.

"Can we see him?" Ember asked. The nurse shifted nervously.

"Well sorry but... I... Eh-" She stuttered, not knowing how to nicely say this, but luckily for her the other dragon (a blue one) took over for her. "What she means to say is currently you can't see him, not only because we are closing, but also he, just as well as you few, need some rest." He said. Funny enough, just when he mentioned rest, Cynder, Flame, and Ember suddenly felt like they were going to pass out, the events of today having sucked up all their energy.

"Well now that you said it." Flame started, before yawing in the middle of his sentence. "I am pretty pooped, see ya guys tomorrow." With that, the red dragon flew out the nearest window, followed by Ember, who left with a goodnight. After a while, Hunter and Bianca felt tired and left as well, though Cynder refused to move from her spot. Which is how she ended up in a argument with the blue dragon.

"Ms. Cynder, I understand you're worry for the young dragon." The doctor stated trying in vain, to stare the former terror of the skies into listening to him. "But he needs his rest, just like you need yours."

"Then just let me stay here!" The young dragoness yelled, getting tired of arguing with the stubborn doctor. "I promise I will stay quiet just let me stay here." The ice dragon thought about it, before he glanced at his fire colleague, who looked at the nurse. The nurse noticed their stares and nodded at them, sighing, the blue dragon turned back to the pleading dragoness.

"Fine, but please make sure you don't disturb anyone, and that you stay here." He gave in, Cynder smiled then nodded at the nurse in appreciation.

"I will. Thank you."

"Your welcome." She smiled back, before they all heard a long drawn out yawn.

"Well goodnight everybody, cause this dragon's going out." the Red dragon yelled out before walking away from the room, soon followed by the red dragon who yelled after him.

"Michael! You're supposed to not yawn like that! It's rude!"

"DON'T TELL ME WHAT TO DO PONY BOY!" The red dragon now known as Michael yelled back from a distance. Sighing at her two friends, the nurse turned towards Cynder.

"Have a good night Ms. Cynder." She said as she bowed, then went after her friends.

"You too." Cynder called back as the nurse and doctors left her alone in the room, sighing the dragoness laid down on the floor, sleep almost instantly starting to take her.

" _Well, let's see who you are once and for all._ " Cynder thought, before she fell into the peaceful arms of sleep.

* * *

 _ **"RUN!"**_

 _ **"WHERE IS SHE!?"**_

 _ **"OH CRUD!"**_

 _ **"GET DOWN!"**_

 _ **"NO!"**_

Cynder woke with a short shriek, startling the nearby nurses, surgeons, and doctors, one of which (who was a young Cheetah doctor) hesitantly walked up to her.

"A-are you o-ok miss?" The young doctor asks, Cynder turned her head towards him, not saying anything for a minute before reassuring the Cheetah she was fine. The doctor nodded and walked off, leaving the former terror of the skies by herself for a while, Cynder meanwhile just sat in silence, her thoughts elsewhere.

 _"What was that?"_ She asked herself as she tried hard to remember the somewhat familiar voices.

 _"Was it a nightmare? Or a vision?"_ Cynder was incredibly focused, so much so that she didn't notice a certain pair of fire dragons walk into the room, and each one plopping down on either side of her, she did notice however, when one of them spoke.

"Hey Cynder, what are you thinking?" Said black dragoness jumped with an audible yelp, her tail whipping around and whacking whatever had startled her. Another yelp traveled though the room along with a loud smack and bang as Cynder's tail slammed whatever made her jump face first into the ground. After finally calming down, Cynder took a look at the offender to see a certain red dragon with his head stuck in a crater in the ground that she had made with his face.

"Oh crap!" The former terror of the skies exclaimed when realizing who she hit. "Flame are you okay?!" The red dragon was unresponsive at first before emitting a moan.

"Aw damn." He groaned. "Did anybody get the number on that cannonball?"

"Sorry." Cynder apologized as she watched as slowly, Flame shook himself out of his dizziness and stood up, turning towards the two dragonesses who stared at him as he did so.

"Don't worry about it, just, don't do it again." The fire dragon assured. Ember looked at Cynder, silent for a moment before speaking up.

"What where you thinking about that made you act like that?" The black dragoness was about to reply, but couldn't find the right words, and after a couple of minutes of trying (and failing) to come up with something, Cynder just simply said "I don't know." the pink dragoness was about to ask something else, before getting interrupted yet again as the nurse from yesterday came in. The trio of dragons all turned their heads to the nurse almost simultaniously, causing the mole to hesitate under their eyes for a second before regaining her composure.

"If you want you can see him, he gained consciousness awhile ago." After hearing this Cynder's excitment shot up, her actual self following, before she set out to meet the electric dragon. Flame and Ember froze for a second, before the pink dragon called after her.

"Cynder! Do you know which room it is?" Said black dragoness poked her head in from the side of the doors, replying with a simple no. Ember sighed while Flame face palmed, both turning their heads to the nurse, silently asking the same question. The Mole turned towards Cynder, knowing that the former terror of the skies would want to know first.

"Go down the hallway that you saw Michael and Gabriel go down, make a right at the end, the third room on you're left should be the room." Cynder smiled at the nurse in gratitude, turning towards the pair of fire dragons to start their small walk.

"Flame, Ember, I know the way. Let's go." said dragons nodded their heads and the three young dragons power walked towards the room the nurse talked about, each one eager to see who this new dragon is.

When the company of three got to the room they saw Sparx just floating outside it, a huge expression of shock and surprise on his face, taking note of this, Cynder walked up to the dragonfly who didn't seem to even notice her.

"Ahem." She coughed, catching his attention, when he looked at her, she could see a clear face of disbelief on him, though Cynder was confused, what was wrong? Did he see a ghost or something?

"Sparx what did you see?" Flame spoke up, catching Sparx's attention as he turned his head towards him and Ember, at first he didn't speak before he simply just said.

"Go and see."

The three dragons, confused by the yellow light even further, walked into the room, not sure what they would see.

"Oh you must be the dragons who saved me. Thank you, I don't think I would know what would've happened had you not found me." Spoke a familiar voice, one they haven't heard in a while. All three dragons froze, not able to believe what they just heard, they walked into the room further to see the mysterious dragon looking at them, and they realized there were more similarities than they thought.

" _Same Horns."_ The three younglings thought together.

" _Same tail blade."_ They continued as they counted down the number of similarities.

" _Same height. Same Voice. Same gold colored underbelly."_

 _"Same Lilac Eyes."_

For minutes on end, Cynder, Flame, and Ember stared at the mysterious dragon, unsure what to do or what to say, the mysterious dragon froze as well, completely nervous at the fact that three dragons are all staring at him with the almost exact same expression.

"Uhh." He muttered, which snapped the three friends out of their stutter.

"Who are you." Cynder suddenly asked, in a somewhat Warning tone.

"Me? My name is... Uhh my name... Is...I can't.." He stuttered, struggling for unknown reasons to tell his name

"What? You can't what?" Ember asked next, out of all of them she was the least angry, more confused than anything else. The mysterious dragon stared hard at the ground in deep thought before his face dropped into one of confusion and fear, he slowly look up at the others, the solemn look on his face giving them bad vibes, the electric dragon's expression of confusion and fear change into nothing but fear as he realized something horrible.

"I can't remember!"

"WHAT?!" They all screamed at the same time, startling the poor dragon.

"I can't remember a-gah- Anything!" He responded shaking his head as he yelled.

"Not who I am! Not how I got here! Not what happened! NOTHING! NOT EVEN MY DAMN NAME!" He screamed as he collapsed on the floor, losing almost all hope.

"What am I supposed to do?" Ember felt bad for this poor dragon, not being able to remember anything must be horrible, she walked up to him and sat down, hoping that she could help.

"Hey it's ok." She assured. "If anything I can help you remember, here, my name is Ember, the black the dragoness is Cynder, and the red one is Flame." At hearing these names, something clicked in the electric dragon's head.

"I... I think I know something... Like I... I remember!" He yelled joyfully. He didn't know why, but he felt as if he already knew these three, not only that, but now he remember something important. Immediately after hearing this, Ember became excited.

"That's great!" She exclaimed, happy that they will find out at least one thing about the dragon.

"What did you remember?" Asked Cynder.

"Roy." He simply said confusing Cynder, Flame, and Ember, at first they unsure why he had said that name, until Cynder put two and two together and realized what he meant by what he said.

"My name." The yellow dragon continued. "Is Roy.

* * *

 **KDS2: BOOM! Third chapter done!**

 **Roy: Alright I remember my name!**

 **Flame: Dude that's bullshit!**

 **KDS2 and Roy: Huh?**

 **Spyro: How is replacing me with someone who looks like me but with light yellow scales instead of purple supposed to help me NOT worry?!**

 **KDS2: WOULD YA'LL JUST STOP WITH THAT?! WAIT AND YOU'LL FIND OUT WHY I SAID "DON'T WORRY"!**

 **Ember: Still we are all curious, what happened that you ended up like how we found you?**

 **Roy: I honestly have no idea.**

 **Zoe: And I'm curious. WHERE THE HELL AM I?!**

 **KDS2: Zoe, you will find out next chapter ok? Ember, you'll find out later. Now for you readers out there, the earliest you can expect a chapter would be a week after I post the last one, but if I am really busy, then the earliest you can expect a chapter would be less than 2 weeks, which is the latest I can post a chapter, ok? As always Constuctive Critizism is appreaciated, see you next chapter and take care everyone!**


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

 **KDS2: Hey ya'll! Here is the next chapter of Still Alive Inside! Let's see what happens with Cynder and the others with their new member Roy!**

 **Zoe: What about me?**

 **KDS2: I know, you will appear in this chapter.**

 **Zoe: Yay!**

 **Sparx(sarcastically): Great yay...**

 **KDS2: Sparx seriously grow up. Btw for you readers, I've noticed that my chapters are getting shorter and have less words so from here on, I'll try to make longer chapters, but that also means longer time before it comes out so please try to be patient with me ok? Also, I thank you for the praise and encouragement, but please don't make reviews that just say "Make Moar!" or something like that, I don't like to be rushed, and when I am I normally end up with something crappy so yeah please don't do that. Thanks!**

 **Flame: Yeah don't do that shit. It's annoying.**

 **Roy: Do you have to curse every single time we do this?**

 **Flame: Yes.**

 **Roy: ~Sigh~ Whatever alright I'll do the Disclaimer.**

 **KDS2: Thanks.**

 **Roy: Don't mention it. KDS2 doesn't own Spyro or anything else except for me, and this story.**

 **Bianca: We hope you enjoy!**

* * *

"Roy."

"Huh?"

"My name... Is Roy." Ember smiled excitedly. Knowing that this dragon could remember his name means that it is possible that he could remember who he was, and who had done this to him, and that was something they all needed to know.

"That's great!" She yelled, startling her dragon friends, and Sparx who was just outside. After realizing what she did Ember quickly apologized to Roy then to Sparx who just about busted in wanting to know what was great.

"Well, is there anything else you remember?" Flame asked as Ember explained the situation to Sparx. Roy thought about it for a moment, before sighing and shaking his head.

"No. I can't remember anything else. Sorry." The yellow dragon apologized, Flame nodded in understanding and was about to reassure him, before Sparx interjected.

"Hey bro don't worry about it at least you remember you're name." Roy looked towards the floor with a sigh.

"Yeah, thanks." He spoke before raising his head and looking directly at the dragonfly, not saying anything at first. Sparx shifted nervously, unsure why the yellow dragon was staring at him, before Roy spoke up.

"What's you're name." He simply asked, and Sparx was too glad to answer.

"Me? Why, I am the one and only Great Sparx! The dragonfly hero who stuck with Spyro through thick and thin, and has saved said hero's ass on multiple occasions, and you my subject, are in Warfang, the dragon city that I built with my own two hands!" He boasted bumping his puffed out chest with his arm a couple of times.

"Really? I thought it was Lame Sparx." said a certain black dragoness in the background, Sparx whipped around and barked at Cynder then turned back to Roy to continue his boasting, before noticing Roy wasn't paying any attention what so ever

"HEY! Did you even hear what I said?!" He yelled and for a minute there, it seemed as if Roy ignored him again, as he was still staring at the ground desponded to everything around him.

"Finally. Someone else who finds his bullroar too boring to pay attention to." Cynder joked, angering the dragonfly further, growling, Sparx was about to yell even louder before he heard Roy muttering.

"Sparx,sparx,sparx,sparx,sparx." He repeated before looking up at Sparx and the others again, a confused look on his face.

"I don't know why, but have the feeling that I've met you before... I can't tell when, but I have it." He spoke, and Sparx once again smirked.

"Well of course." He continued. "Everybody says they've met The Great Sparx before, I wouldn't be surprised if you-"

"Sparx!"

Sparx froze and turned around to Cynder who was looking quite annoyed, Sparx gulped and decided he would stop boasting for the next few minutes.

"Can you answer the question seriously?" She demanded, and Sparx gave a slow shaky nod before turning back to Roy.

"Sorry pal. But I'm afraid I haven't seen you anywhere." He spoke truthfully. Roy reassured the yellow dragonfly, and turned to face Cynder, but when he locked eyes with her, he froze.

" _She's... She's..._ " He thought. Cynder noticed his staring and glared back at the dragon.

"What." The black dragoness scoffed, she was expecting Roy to recognize her as the Terror Of the Skies, since many people had, she wouldn't be surprised if he did as well, so she was ready for anything he said, well anything except what he said next.

"You're pretty." He muttered loud enough for everyone in the room to hear, Cynder immediately felt her cheeks start to burn, while everyone else was completely stunned, nobody expected that, not even Roy himself it seemed for as soon as he realized what he said, his cheeks turned red.

"I-I'm so sorry!" He hastily apologized, embarrassed at his words. "I wah- I wasn't paying attention to what I was saying!" Even after picking their jaws off the floor, none of them could still find anything to say, soon the silence was becoming unbearable for Sparx.

"I uh- I should probably go." The dragonfly said nervously before leaving the room, followed by Flame; who's excuse was he had to train, leaving Roy standing awkwardly between Ember and Cynder.

"Can we uh- can we just pretend I didn't say that?" He asked sheepishly, getting no reply at first, Roy was about to hide in a corner before Cynder spoke up.

"Y-Yeah let's." She agreed, with yet another awkward silence falling between the three dragons, no one knowing what exactly to say, that is until the silence was -thankfully- broken again by someone coming through the door.

"Come on let me see!" Yelled a high pitched voice, soon followed by Sparx's own, before a infant sized human looking creature with wings flew into the room followed by Sparx, and a few familiar faces, for Cynder anyway.

"No you need to have The Great Sparx's-" Sparx yelled as he flew up to the flying infant, before getting nearly slapped across the face by said creature

"Oh will you shut up with that already!" It screamed, and judging by it's voice and appearance Roy deduced that it was female

"Oh so this is what the mysterious dragon looks like." The flying girl commented, before being bumped into by Sparx who was quite irritated.

"For YOUR information, he has a name and it is Roy." Sparx yelled getting in his flying companion's face before she scoffed in his and turned towards the yellow dragon.

"Roy huh? Well then Roy, I am Zoe, Zoe the Fairy, at you're humble service." The Fairy said with a bow which Roy replied with his own bow of his head.

"Nice to meet you." Zoe giggled at his bow, and Roy chuckled lightly as well, before noticing her Cheetah and Rabbit friends.

"Who are your friends?" He asked leaning over Zoe to the side to get a look at her companions.

"How rude of us." Hunter spoke before taking a bow. "I am Hunter of Avalar, it is a pleasure Roy."

"Pleasure is all mine Hunter." Roy replied before looking at Bianca.

"And you?" Bianca seemed to be spacing out, for as Roy said that she slightly jumped and looked at the electric dragon.

"Me? Well I am Bianca! Master of all magic at your side!." She happily shouted, not noticing Sparx slowly hovering over to Roy's side.

"Still think _The Great Sparx_ kicks all the ass." He muttered in the yellow dragon's ear, causing him to chuckle loudly, before looking at Ember and Cynder.

"Again, sorry for what I said back there." He apologized sheepishly. Cynder laughed nervously while reassuring her new friend.

"Don't worry, let's just pretend it never happened."

"Yeah let's." Roy replied, and before another awkward silence could step in the young dragon suddenly had an idea.

"Hey can you tell me where I am?" He asked, making Sparx face palm, aside from the name Sparx, Roy seemed to have dismissed everything he said. Sighing a sigh of frustration Sparx looked at the curious young dragon.

"I had said where we are before and if you had been listening, you would've known."

Roy looked down a little bit and apologized, feeling a little ashamed for ignoring his new friend. Hunter reassured him and started to explain where he was, which was The City Of Warfang, and no matter how confusing Hunter had made it, -by accident of course- Roy was able to understand all of it. In fact, oddly enough, some parts the electric dragon had called out himself.

"Wait doesn't that mean you've been here before?" Asked Bianca, and Roy stopped to think about it, the way Hunter described the city, and the name itself, sounded a little familiar, but he can't seem to place it, no matter how hard he tried.

"I think so, I mean some of what Hunter said sounded a little familiar." He spoke with a shrug

"That's it! I have an idea!" Ember screamed excitedly out of no where, startling everyone except Hunter and jumped up to Roy.

"If you can remember some parts of this place, that means there is a chance that if we show you everywhere it might trigger something! Come on!" With that Ember wrapped her tail around Roy's paw -completely forgetting about his wounds, and ignoring his complaining and objections- and went to sprint off before Cynder stepped in her way.

"Hold it Ember. Have you forgotten about his wounds? He can't just go around running wherever you want, at least not at the moment, he needs to let his wounds heal." The black dragoness scolded. Ember nodded -albeit sadly- and let go of Roy's arm, apologizing to the electric dragon as she did so, Roy nodded at the pink dragoness in reassurance before turning towards the former terror of the skies.

"Don't worry Cynder, Michael said I could walk around." He reassured, before looking at his completely wrapped up wings, sighing at the pathetic and sad sight of the bandage covered limbs and turning back to Cynder. "Though Gabriel said that flying and running are things I won't be able to do for a while."

Cynder nodded and started to think about it. Yeah he could walk around, but this is EMBER he's going to be walking with, and she runs everywhere, in fact Cynder doubts that walking is even in the excitable fire dragoness' dictionary.

"Fine I guess, but I'm going with you, for Ember here you see; doesn't know exactly what walking is."

"Hey!" Said pink dragoness squealed as Roy laughed heartily at Cynder's joke. Cynder started laughing as well before stopping first and just listens to Roy's laugh.

" _He even laughs like Spyro._ " She thought as Roy's laugh died out, after calming the electric dragon turned and apologized to Ember.

"Well what are we waiting for? Let's skedaddle!" Roy yelled cheerfully, but before the three could leave something stopped them, or at least someone.

"Hold on a minute. You're not forgetting about me are ya?!" Yelled Sparx as he hovered in front of the three, a unamused expression on his face, which was, funny enough the exact opposite of what Cynder's amused expression.

"You? Please, we couldn't even if we tried, and believe me, I've tried." Ember surprisingly remarked earning her a high tail from Cynder, and the honor of pissing off the dragonfly.

"Hey shouldn't you be hanging with Fire? He did say he was going to take you out right?" The dragonfly blurted, causing Ember to jump in surprise, and bolt out the door, apologizing to Roy and Cynder as she nearly ran them over. Though both of the pre-mentioned dragons could hear her apologizing all the way down the hall as she no doubt probably ran into other creatures.

"Well that was mean." Roy commented in a disapproving tone to Sparx who simply shrugged.

"Hey what can I say? She was getting on my nerves. Now let's just forget what happened and go already!" He complained as he tried fruitlessly to drag Roy by his horns, said electric dragon merely shook his head and sent Sparx screaming out the door and into the wall outside where he slowly slid down like something from a cartoon, throwing Zoe, Cynder and Bianca into a laughing fit, Hunter just chuckling loudly, embarrassing the dragonfly who just simply flew up and out the door, swearing revenge.

"I'LL GET YOU FOR THIS LAWTON!" He screamed. Meanwhile Roy turned and face Cynder and the others, a bemused expression on his face.

"What was that about? And who the hell is Lawton?" He asked, earning him the answer.

"No Idea." Cynder said.

"Beats me." Was Zoe's reply.

"I honestly have no idea." Bianca spoke just as confused.

Hunter simply just shrugged, Roy thought about it for a moment before looking at Cynder.

"Hey Cynder." The black dragoness looked at Roy her expression asking the question.

"Is it okay if you could show me around?" The electric dragon offered shyly, Cynder looked at him oddly before nodding.

"Sure, hey guys do you wanna come?" Cynder asked, earning a no thanks or head shake from the three.

"Ok than let's go. I'll lead by the way." She added, getting no objections from Roy, soon the two said their goodbyes to Hunter, Bianca, and Zoe before leaving the Hospital, with Roy thanking the mole nurse that Cynder had met as they passed. Once outside, the two were about to start conversing about where to go before the electric dragon was hit with freezing cold water.

"Gaaaaaaaah!" The dragon yelled as he jumped up and face planted on the other side of Cynder, said dragoness looked down at him, then up to see a laughing Sparx, who was also pointing his finger at the unlucky dragon on the floor.

"Haha- See? Hahaha- told ya I get revenge Hahaha-" Cynder used her wind element to slam Sparx right into the cold water that rested on the floor, giving the dragonfly a taste of his own medicine, the minute he was let go Sparx let out a girly scream that Cynder was pretty sure everyone in the infirmary could hear it.

"AAAAAAAH GOD DAMN THAT'S COLD!" He yelled as he was soon also shivering on the floor, seeing both friends shivering on the floor on a hot day made Cynder giggle before laughing uncontrollably.

"N-n-not f-f-f-funny." Roy said agitated as he stood up facing the laughing dragoness.

"Ar-are you kidding?! Haha. This is hilarious!" She said in-between laughs, getting tired of being humiliated, Roy and Sparx decided to team up for the moment and picked up as much water as they could, before throwing it at Cynder's face, earning an out of character squeak from the former terror of the skies, who stood there frozen then becoming mad and using her wind element to splash more water on her two yellow companions. Soon, all three friends where cold, wet, and laughing hard, each one having one of the happiest times of their life before calming down and started to head the middle of the city. It was there that Sparx and Cynder started showing Roy around, they showed him the blacksmiths, the shops, as well as where the neighborhoods were, finally they took him to the main temple, inside saying the place was huge would be a massive understatement, Roy felt overwhelmed by the sheer size of the place, the markings on the wall of the history of dragons, the white marble floor, and the nice looking linings on the walls and floors, it wasn't anything fancy, but it was homey, and comfy.

"Wow." Roy said while looking around, amazed by everything in the place that was now crowded, the electric dragon was so awed by the temple, he wasn't paying attention to where he was going, and bumped into another dragon, Roy falling down with a yelp and whatever he walk into making a grunt, Roy looked up and saw a massive dragon that had dark green and brown scales, and a brown spiked ball at the end of his tail.

"Oops, I am so sorry I wasn't watching where I was going." Roy apologized, feeling a little intimidated by the older dragon's size, Roy was tempted to try and make himself look bigger, but something about the giant dragon's brown eyes calmed him down.

"It is alright young dragon." The old dragon spoke in a deep calm booming voice, one that made the younger dragon feel small and insignificant.

"But it would be wise to pay more attention in the future." Roy nodded slowly, still having a somewhat hard time believing something so big could exist, the green dragon nodded as well, and went to leave before hearing a voice that made him freeze.

"Well hello Terrador." Spoke the black dragoness, Terrador turned around and when he laid eyes on Cynder, his eyes widened.

"Cynder... You're.."

"Out of my room. Yes."

"How?"

"The electric dragon beneath you." Sparx bluntly said. Terrador turned and looked back down at Roy, who froze when he met his eyes.

"Hi." He said shyly.

"Tell me Terrador." Cynder spoke as she smiled, knowing that Terrador was about to see what she and Sparx saw.

"Doesn't he look familiar?" Terrador looked closer, at first he didn't recognize anything, but then he really took a look at Roy's body type, his horn shapes, his tail blade, his eye color, and then Terrador put it all together.

" _Dear Ancestors..._ " He thought fearfully " _He looks just like-"_

"Like him right?" Cynder spoke. Terrador turned towards her and nodded, Roy tilted his head in confusion looking at Cynder, then Terrador, then back.

"Wait you two know each other?" The electric dragon concluded, both Terrador and Cynder nodding.

"Indeed." The earth dragon confirmed, and introduced himself.

"I am Terrador the Earth Guardian, and you are?"

"Oh sorry umm I am Roy." the young dragon answered with a bow, Terrador bowed back, and wished the young dragon farewell, with Roy doing the same. Terrador walked off leaving Roy with just Cynder and Sparx.

"He's cool." Roy commented.

"Of course not as cool as The Great Sparx." Sparx remarked earning a laugh from Roy and Cynder.

 _"These two."_ Roy thought.

" _Cynder and Sparx."_ They are his friends- no- best friends, being around these two was not bad at all, nor was it weird, it felt right, like something he was supposed to do, like something he **had** done. In a way he didn't understand it felt like he had known these two for years.

Little did he know.

He had.

* * *

 **KDS2: AND CHAPTER FOUR IS DOWN AND OUT FOR THE COUUNNNNTTT!**

 **Ember: And the crowd goes wild "haar, haar."**

 **Flame: Boo. Boo.**

 **KDS2: ? Why?**

 **Flame: I barely did anything in this chapter.**

 **KDS2: Don't worry you'll be the somewhat center of attention in the next chapter.**

 **Flame: Really?**

 **KDS2: Yeah. You and Ember.**

 **Flame: "Glances at Ember and blushes when she looks at him".**

 **KDS2: Andmaybetheguardians.**

 **Flame: What?**

 **KDS2: Oh nothing.**

 **Roy: Hey what did you mean by what you said at the end?**

 **Hunter: You'll find out.**

 **KDS2: Thanks Hunter. As usual readers, constuctive critisizm is always appreciated. See you next chapter and take care everyone!**


	5. Chapter 5

**Author Note: Well here's the next chapter in my series SAI, and as I promised (to Flame anyway), this story will be a mostly Flamber chapter (yes I did just make this up on the go), and will also have the Guardians make an appearance, and same with their apprentices. So what are we waiting for? Oh yeah for me to shut up. Alright Disclaimer! I don't own Spyro or anything else in this story except for any fan characters that appear in this story, and said story, everything/everyone belong to their/it's respective owners.**

 **Author Note: I would really like some criticism on my fight scene here, even if it is flame (no pun intended) reviews, if you could do that for me thanks a bunch.**

* * *

Flame panted hard as he stared down the three Grublins in front of him that were made from straw. He had been training almost non-stop ever since he left the hospital, which was half an hour ago. He originally started with 20 of them, and now the three that stand before him are all that are left. The straw dummies charged the red dragon, who waited in anticipation. When they got close enough, one of them swung his club at the fire dragon, aiming to hit him in the head. Flame ducked under the club, feeling the wind as it passed by his head and nicked the tip of his horn. The red dragon then leaned back as another one swung at his chest, before jumping up as the third one took a swing at his legs. Now in the air, Flame shot three fire balls, each one aimed at each of the three dummies. One was able to dodge it entirely, although the second wasn't lucky as the fire licked at it's arm and burned it. The third one, however, was the unluckiest as the fire ball hit it square in the chest, burning a hole straight through and catching the area around it on fire. Instantly, the dummy turned to ash due to it being made out of straw. Flame barreled into the dummy with the burn on it's arm, grabbing it by said limb, and used the momentum of his trajectory to hurl the straw dummy into the other one; sending both of them across the floor. And before either could get up, a wave of fire was spread on them by the red dragon. Said red dragon landed shortly after to catch his breath, though he didn't take his eyes off of the ash; nor did his stance waver for, the stilled ash suddenly disappears, and just as fast as it popped out, another straw dummy replaced it. But this one took the shape of a large ape instead of the usual Grublin. It roared loudly, then ran at Flame with surprising speed. It swung a now formed sword at the fire dragon at an angle, aiming to slice across his chest. Quickly thinking, Flame used his tail blade to block the sword, pushing with all of his might against the giant ape's strength. But it wasn't enough as his tail blade was knocked up, and the dummy successfully smacked the dragon with the sword, causing him to skip across the ground. Groaning, Flame pulled himself together with a swear fast enough to roll out of the way of the dummy who tried to stomp on him. Reeling back up, Flame hovered above the ground and shot towards the dummy horns first, allowing fire to surround him as he picked up speed. The poor thing had no time to dodge as the fire dragon rammed into it and engulfed it in flames, making it weak enough that Flame ended up shooting out it's back, and had to roll on the ground least he ended up dragging across the floor. Panting even harder Flame stood up momentarily, before sitting down to catch his breath.

"Damn... *Pant* I need, *Pant* to be, *Pant* faster." He mumbled to no one in particular, though someone had heard for as soon as he finished his sentence, a voice spoke out; startling the red drake

"You sure? I think you're fast enough." The feminine voice said, and Flame turned his head around to see Ember sitting on the side lines, with a amused expression clear on her face. Flame sighed, then stood up and trotted over to the pink dragoness, his panting going away.

"No... *Small pant* I'm not fast enough... *Deep breath, then sigh* I need to train more; I need to get stronger as well, you saw that Ape overpower me." He replied, with a little hint of frustration in his voice. He was angry, not at Ember, but rather himself. Even though he has been training day after day with almost no breaks since Spyro's death. He still feels as though nothing as change, as though he wasn't making any progress what so ever. Ember looked at him and tilted her head a tiny bit, confused and interested at how the ash pile turned into the ape.

"Speaking of which, how'd you get apes to spawn? I thought it was only 20 Grublins." Flame pulled out of his self anger and chuckled nervously at her question before he sat down next to her.

"Well yeah there was only 20. But I also set it so that every four I destroy, one ape will spawn; so I guess in truth there were 25, but I don't wanna get all technical." Flame explained **(Ha it rhymed)**. Ember nodded slightly in understandment with a "Oh."

After a while of silence Ember started to stare intently at Flame with a agitated look. Said red dragon noticed her stare and shifted nervously, unsure why his female companion was staring at him the way she was.

Hey Flame, aren't you forgetting something?" She asked dully. Flame jumped a little at her voice and looked at her. He thought about it, before tilting his head in confusion.

"No... Not that I think so... Why?" The red dragon asked as he started to lean away from Ember as he felt an ominous aura emitting from the pink dragoness. He was so unnerved by it that he was about to jump up and run when he heard her voice.

"You promised to hang out with me." She growled, Flame was frozen to the ground, he gulped, and thought of a way to calm the obviously pissed off dragoness. Before an idea came to him.

"Oh that! Of course I remember! In fact, I was about to go get you when I was done. But then you came and I temporarily - **Temporarily!** Forgot. But since you're here uhh let's go! heheh." He spurted hastily. Ember gave him a hard stare, trying to break the will of the red dragon and get him to say that he forgot entirely. **If** he forgot. In truth he had, but Flame remained resilient, and successfully made Ember think he didn't.

"Oh okay, then what are we waiting for? Let's go!" She exclaimed. She then wrapped her tail around Flame's and bolted off. The red dragon noticed his entrapped tail a little too late and was yanked after her with a yelp. He then picked himself up so that he wouldn't be dragged by the excited pink dragoness, and ran in pace with her.

"Can you live for like 2 seconds without having to run everywhere!?" He yelled. Ember stopped for a second to think about it, causing Flame to trip over himself and fall comically to the floor on his face.

"Nope." She simply said before blasting off had no time to react and was therefor dragged on his face screaming. The residents down the hall opened their doors and stepped outside to see what the commotion was. Only to be nearly ran over by a pink dragoness who was dragging a screaming and swearing red dragon.

"GOD DAMIT EMBER STOP! **STOOOOPPP!"** Flame yelled. Only to receive no answer as Ember ignored him, she continued running down the halls dragging Flame along and ignoring his pleas. That is, until she accidently ran into a large yellow and black dragon. The impact had caused the pink dragoness to fall to the ground, and the screaming red blur that was Flame to be slingshot into said huge dragon before sliding to the floor, his tail being forcefully unwrapped from hers. Ember winced when she heard the sound of Flame hitting the dragon, then sliding down to the floor. She looked up at the face of the older drake to see a face frowning down at her.

"Now now Ember, you know the rules, restrictions, laws, and curfews about running inside the temple." the unknown dragon spoke, and Ember nodded reluctantly.

"Sorry Volteer." She apologized. Volteer nodded in reassurance, and went to speak before they both heard a groan and looked down to see Flame getting up.

"Geez Ember, can't you just walk for once?" He asked. Said pink dragoness smiled sheepishly and apologized to the annoyed dragon, who -reluctantly- reassured her. The two both heard a forced cough and looked up to the electric dragon.

"Well off you two go now, I've got to go to a meeting, gathering, rendezvous with Terrador and Cyril." Volteer said as he stepped out of their way with a smile.

"Ok. Thanks!" Flame made sure to lead this time so that Ember wouldn't bolt off again. As they passed Volteer, the electric guardian nodded in goodbye. Flame and Ember waved their wings in reply before they left the training room.

Now in the main hall the two wondered what to do, or where to go before Flame suggested somewhere outside the temple, Ember agreed and the two headed off to their destination. While on their way to the exit, Flame and Ember noticed Cynder, Sparx, and Roy talking to Terrador who, soon after, left the odd group of three alone to their own business. Sparx then leaned over between Roy and Cynder said something that, seconds later, made everyone laugh heartily.

"She seems happy doesn't she?" Ember asked calmly, Flame glanced at her in confusion before looking back at the trio.

"Yeah." He agreed just as calm. "Looks like Roy really helped her come around. I'm not sure why, but I feel like he was supposed to get here, that he was supposed to become friends with us, you get me?" He asked glancing at Ember, who was looking at the trio.

"Yes, yes I do." She replied. Not noticing that Flame was unconsciously staring at her, admiring her features. For you see, the young drake always liked the pink dragoness, but when he saw that she was in love with Spyro, he had backed off, not wanting to be heartbroken and possibly mess up their friendship. But now she's not, and there's no one there to stop him. He could take this window of opportunity, but his doubts held him still. Making the red dragon unsure whether to go through or not.

" _What if she doesn't like me back?_ " A part of him thought, though he tried to force that thought away, he couldn't. There was still the chance she didn't like him back, and if that were true he could mess up their relationship. But then again there's a chance she did share the same feelings, but the fifty fifty match up didn't sound well to Flame. He continued his thoughts not realizing that he was staring at her until she spoke up.

"Flame?" Said fire dragon snapped out of his thoughts and looked down to Ember who was staring ahead, a slight blush visible on her face.

"I want to ask you something." The pink dragoness mumbled. So quietly that Flame could barely hear.

"Hmm? What is it?" Ember stole a glance at the red dragon, and quickly looked away when she noticed him looking back.

"Do you... Do-do you..." She stuttered. Flame tilted his head in confusion. Why was she having trouble saying whatever as in her head?

"Dooo IIII what Ember? What is it?" the fire drake asked kindly, and for a while Ember didn't say anything before just simply shaking her head.

"No-nothing. It's nothing." Flame gave her a weird look, unconvinced that whatever Ember had to say was nothing.

"You sure?" Ember nodded strongly. Flame decided to drop it knowing that he won't be able to get her to confess, for a while the two walked in a comfortable silence. Admiring the complex and intricate designs on the walls of the temple. Soon enough they both reach the door to the outside, at first; neither knew what to do, until Flame mentioned town square. Ember agreed and the two headed for their destination, until they both stop as a ball landed right in front of them.

"Hey!" Called a voice. The fire duo looked at the caller to see a Dark Green drake with dark grey horns and underbelly run up to them, a grateful smile on his face.

"Is this you're ball?" Flame asked. The young drake nodded, Flame slightly scolded the dragon and told him to be more careful before, Ember gave the ball back with her own words of wisdom. The earth dragon apologized and took the ball in his mouth before he waltzed away with a muffled thanks.

"Who do you suppose that was?" The pink dragoness wondered aloud. Flame shrugged and went to answer before the same dragon came back without the ball in his mouth.

"Hey! Again thanks a lot for the ball, and sorry." The fire duo nodded with Ember reassuring the dragon. The three stood in silence before a electric dragoness walked up to him.

"Grail what are you doing?" She asked calmly. Said earth dragon explained what had transpired a few moments ago, the dragoness nodded and thanked Flame and Ember, calling her earth friend an idiot before turning to go back to wherever she came from.

"Well thanks but I gotta go, oh and uh what are you're names?" Grail asked. Flame and Ember both introduced themselves with a small bow of their heads, Grail soon doing the same.

"Name's Grail, but you already know that. Well nice meeting you two. See ya later! hope we can meet again." Grail waved at the two with his wing as he left for wherever his electric companion went to. Stating that he hoped they could met again. Flame and Ember waved back before continuing their walk.

"He was a pretty nice guy right?" Ember asked. Flame nodded in agreement, soon the two decided to head towards town square; where all the citizens are. Bored with walking, the two flew to the top of one of the nearby buildings and looked towards town square, signified by the huge stone statue of a dragon.

"That's pretty far away." Flame admitted, Ember hummed in agreement before coming to an idea.

"Hey Flame." Flame looked at his pink friend and tilted his head at her cocky expression.

"What's up with your- Wait a minute. You're not-"

"Yep."

"Goddamnit."

Ember got in a racing stance and half glared at Flame, seeing the challenge, said red drake got in a racing stance as well. Legs half bent and wings open to shoot off with a beat.

"Ready." Ember spoke first, initiating the start up. Flame glanced at her and smirked, Ember doing the same. Before both set their sights on the town Square, signified by the statue of the first guardian in existence.

"Set." Flame spoke next. His legs and wings tensing in anticipation for what was bound to come next.

"GO" They both shouted in unison. Both darting off the roof and taking to the skies with a kick of their feet, and a beat of their wings. The two shot over buildings and civilians, each one trying to get an upper hand over the other. In the past, Ember had always won these races. But as Flame trained more and more the distance that was between them whenever she won was getting smaller an smaller until it was either she won by an inch or two, or it was a tie.

" _But this time I'm gonna win._ " Flame thought determinedly to himself. He strained to go faster, and slowly but surely he was pulling ahead of Ember who, when she noticed, she started to speed up as well until they were neck and neck. Each youngling pushed harder and harder, desperate to try and get over the other as the main statue came rushing into their view.

Ember gasped at how fast they were hurtling towards the statue, at this rate; they were going to crash into it, and she knows for a **fact** that it wouldn't end well. Slightly panicking, Ember looked at Flame, who to focused on getting ahead of her to notice the statue.

"FLAME!" Ember yelled at the top of her lungs, hoping that he'd be able to hear her. Fortunately, he did hear her and looked at her with a tilt of his head.

"WE HAVE TO STOP!" She continued, motioning her head towards the statue as she spoke. "WE'RE GOING TO CRASH INTO IT!" Flame looked forward and his eyes focused on the statue for a brief moment before his eyes widened and fear shot right into his core.

"SHIT!" He roared banking a hard left as he did. "SHIT SHIT SHITSHITSHIT!" Flame made the turn just barely while Ember slowed herself to a stop, Flame turned around again and went back to Ember.

"Good call there. You okay?" The red drake asked. Ember remained quiet her head lowered.

"No." She whispered. Worry and fear shot through Flame like a freight train and he immediately started checking his friend.

"Oh god did you hurt you're arm?! Did you hurt you're wing or leg?! Do you need to go to the infirmary!?" He asked panicking, but Ember remained calm.

"No, No, and No." She answered calmly, and Flame was sure that he was ready to lose it, his worry itching at him.

"Then what happened?!" He finally asked, and Ember looked up at him, a mischievous smirk on her face.

"You won." Flame did a double take on Ember, at first he was furious; his friend had blatantly tricked him. He was about to yell at her until he realized what she and suddenly, he felt so happy and excited.

"I-I won? I WON!" He yelled joyfully, doing flips and the such in the air, making Ember giggle.

" I beat you! I finally beat you woo!" He shouted again, making Ember laugh hard.

"Yes, indeed you did." She spoke between laughs, and soon Flame joined her. After their little laughing fest, the two landed and look around the square, and just decided to walk around and take a look at the area; there were Moles selling gems and jewelry, Cheetahs selling food and medicine, and dragons selling weapons and armor. Though they didn't buy anything, Ember did see a necklace that she adored. It was golden and had a ruby gem shaped like a heart in the middle. Flame made a mental note to buy that for her, before the two heard a bell tow. Signaling a calling from the guardians.

"Well we better get there." Flame spoke. His pink companion nodded in agreement and the two headed back the temple, both wondering why the guardians had called a meeting.

When they got there they saw Cheetahs, Dragons, and Moles alike everywhere, and the guardians Terrador, Volteer, and Cyril were standing on a stage that put them up and in clear view of those even in the back. Flame and Ember tried looking around for familiar faces until they both heard a voice call them.

"Hey Flame! Ember!" Said fire dragons looked for the speaker and spotted Roy and Sparx waving at them from afar, Roy using his wing and Sparx his hand, Cynder simply sitting there with a smirk on her face.

"Hey guys!" Flame yelled back as he waved his wing. He and Ember caught up to them, and the group conversed about their evening, the topic leading into the guardians and why they called everyone.

"So what do ya'll think it's about?" Sparx voiced aloud, Flame, Ember, Cynder, and Roy all became silent, each in deep thought, each figuring out their own reason for why they were all called. Then one by one, they gave their answer.

"I think maybe it's about a new fire guardian to replace Ignitus." Ember spoke first. Cynder flinched at the name and looked down at the floor in thought. Ignitus. The old fire guardian had treated Spyro like he was his son, and her like she was his daughter despite what she had done. He had given them hope and had guided them when they were confused, and was there to protect them when they couldn't. Ultimately, he gave his life for her and Spyro so that they could save everyone else. Briefly, Cynder wondered how'd he react if he saw what had happened to Spyro, and how'd he react if he met Roy before snapping out of her thoughts, Cynder raised her head to put in what she thought.

"I think it's about their choice for pupils." The black dragoness inputted. Last time she checked, the guardians were going to pick successors to take their place. They were growing old, and that meant that they were going to have to give their roles up. Of course not as soon as they pick their apprentices, the apprentices will train for years before taking up the position.

"I think it's something that happened outside the city." Flame suggested.

"Hmmm." Roy continued thinking. He wasn't here long, so he has no idea what to think. So, going on instinct Roy decided to not chose and decided to believe one of the others.

"I'm going with Cynder on this. I believe that this about their choice for pupils."

"Oh you explained what guardians and pupils are?" Ember noted and asked Cynder and Sparx. Both nodded and the group of five looked at the stage when they heard the sound of something landing. There on the stage stood the last three remaining guardians in a line; the guardian of Earth Terrador on the left, the guardian of Ice Cyril in the middle, and the guardian of Electricity Volteer on the right. Everyone stopped talking to listen to what the guardians had to say as Cyril stepped forward first.

"Thank you all for coming as soon as you can. I'm sure you all know the reasoning behind why you were called here." The ice dragon said becoming silent as Volteer stepped up right next to him, a calm and yet giddy expression on his face.

"We three have decided which of the younglings will become our successors, they will be put through vigorous training for the next ten years, before finally becoming guardians of the element they have." Volteer continued, staying silent as Terrador finally stepped forward, completing the line again.

"We hope you the best of luck. We are not teachers who tolerate laziness, you will be put to you're limits, and you will have to push past them or fail. We hope you understand why this has to be difficult. Now when we call you're names, you will step up and stand in front of you're instructor." Terrador finished. Roy,Cynder,Sparx,Flame, and a couple of other civilians started looking around for these few chosen dragons. Until Cyril caught their attention.

"We will now chose our successors."

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 **KDS2: AND VOALA! FITH CHAPTER IS OUT!**

 **Flame: Congrats.**

 **Ember: Yay!**

 **Roy: Well I'm happy.**

 **Cynder: I wonder who the pupils will be.**

 **Flame: I have an idea what one of them are, maybe two.**

 **Ember: Agreed.**

 **KDS2: Well you'll find out next chapter. Now for you readers, as I've said before I'm going to make these chapters longer so that means more time before they are released so yeah. Also, a some point I plan on starting a slice-of-life fic for Spyro to kill time while waiting for ideas to pop up for this story, it's name will be a secret until it is released. So be on the look out and as always-**

 **Cynder: Constructive criticism is appreciated!**

 **Roy: See ya next chapter and take care everybody!**

 **KDS2: HEY! That's my-**


	6. Chapter 6

**Well here's the sixth chapter! And now I am introducing the apprentices for real this time. So without further ado, let's start.  
**

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"Now we will choose our successors." Cyril the Ice guardian voiced aloud, getting a huge roar from the crowd in response. He smiled and allowed the cheers to come to a stop by themselves before motioning for Terrador to speak. The group of four dragons and one dragonfly started quivering with excitement, each and every one of them being barely able wait to see who the apprentices were.

Terrador cleared his throat, gaining everyone's attention as he begins to call out students.

"For the Guardian of Electricity Volteer, he has chosen Yami. . ." The group of five followed the crowd's gaze to a orangish yellow and dark grey dragoness who looked a little older than our group, she walked confidently through the crowd and up onto the stage, where she stood in front of Volteer, head up in defiance. Terrador glanced at her, then Volteer, then turned back to the crowd.

". . . For The Guardian of Ice Cyril, Mysti. . ." Cyril smiled in confidence as a bright blue and dragoness flew in from the roof, and landed -quite stylishly- in front of the ice guardian. Coming to a standing position, her scales seemingly sparkling in the sun like snowflakes, earning 'oohs' and 'aaahs' from the crowd-Flame included much to Ember's annoyance. Terrador sighed at the over dramatic appearance of the dragoness before returning to the subject at hand.

". . . Finally for the Guardian of Earth training, I have chosen Grail." Flame and Ember's eyes widened at hearing the name before the pre-mentioned young earth dragon energetically jumped into the crowd from the back, landing next to our group of five, who whipped their heads to look at the drake in surprise. Grail looked at the group of friends and noticed Flame and Ember, he smiled and waved at the two.

"Hey Flame! Hey Ember! Big surprise huh? Well see ya!" The young earth dragon jumped into the air and flew towards the stage, where he landed gracefully in front of Terrador and turned towards the crowd, a giddy and excited friendly smile on his face.

"Wow." Flame whispered to Ember. "Never thought he'd be the earth guardian successor." Ember nodded in reply, agreeing with her red friend. Terrador cleared his throat again to gain attention as the crowd had started to dissipate, due to the fact that they thought that the choosing was over. Everybody looked at the battle hardened dragon with bemused expressions, as Terrador slightly frowned.

"For Fire Guardian training, the apprentice will be Dante." The group as well as the crowd looked around in surprise to find the elusive dragon before glancing back at the stage to see a timid looking crimson red and earth brown dragon who looked younger then our group of five friends walking up onto the stage, the young dragon walked to the left of Terrador, and looked down in shyness, afraid to look at the eyes of just about the entire Warfang population as they all stared at him in awe and confusion. Said crowd them turned to Terrador for the answers to the question they were all secretly asking.

"Now for the oppressing matter at hand." He started, his voice grim and a bit down. "Due to to the events of The Dark War, we have lost The Guardian of Fire Ignitus, may the ancestors accept him with open arms." Everyone including Terrador had paused to pray for the old fire guardian's peaceful passing. Roy on the other hand had froze, Ignitus. That's a name he had heard before, but where? No matter how hard Roy thought, he couldn't piece it together. The electric dragon was brought out of his thoughts when he noticed the crowd had returned their attention to Terrador, who was about to continue.

"Due to these tradgic events, we have no guardian to train a successor, so we must settle for the next best thing. We have decided that the apprentice will have a dragon that is experienced with the element of fire and is familiar with the rules of being a guardian to be his trainer." Ember had an idea who the trainer might be, there was only one dragon she knew of that was that experienced with both the rules of a fire guardian and the element of fire to train a successor to the element. Ember put her focus back on Terrador as she noticed his mouth opening to speak.

"And so, young Dante's trainer will be. . . Flame!" Said dragon jumped at hearing his name called, he looked at his friends who, all had approving and happy looks as they nodded him on. Flame smirked confidently in gratitude and flew onto the stage, he landed in front of Terrador, the two nodding at each other in a silent exchange before Flame walked to and stood behind the noticeably smaller fire dragon, smiling proudly at his position.

"I didn't know they could do that." Roy voiced surprised. Cynder looked at him and nodded in agreement, Sparx just smiled at the two. "They do now." He spoke as he, along with Cynder and Roy, returned their attention to Terrador when they heard his voice.

"I understand your confusion on why we had chosen Flame as the instructor instead of the successor, and l will let young Flame explain it for you." Terrador nodded at Flame to speak, Flame cleared his throat and, under the watching eyes of all the citizens, was tempted to make himself look bigger. He ignored the feeling and spoke.

"I know that I am pretty good with the fire element, and that I already know and understand the rules of being a guardian in general, but I just don't agree with them. There is also the fact that well, given my wants and what the rules are. I can't say I'll be at attention every time I'm needed to be, so I've decided that I'll leave that responsibility to some dragon who can. Though I will be willing to train them if I need to, I'm afraid being a guardian is something I can't do. I thank you Terrador for respecting my wish and it is a honor to be training Ignitus' successor, and I hope I'm good enough to help this city with it's immediate problem." Flame finished, he then stood still nervously as nobody said anything at first. Before there was an uproar of cheers from the audience, some even whistled at the now blushing red dragon, the pink on his cheeks barely visible, Ember and Cynder simply smiled, while Roy and Sparx cheered along with the crowd, Flame's blush disappeared as he smiled brightly, happy that everyone had accepted and understood his decision. Terrador nodded at Flame in approval before turning to the now quiet crowd to speak again.

"Now finally, as per events in the past, I have decided that soon we will be sending out search parties again out to find more civilizations, that we hope to be at peace with." With this the crowd started whispering to each other, some silently agreeing, some disagreeing, and others unable to decide, among these few where Sparx, Roy, Cynder, and Ember. Seeing this discomfort Terrador cleared his throat to regain attention.

"I understand your concerns and I will not force you to go if you don't want to. But we need to know who else is on our side, it is a dangerous world out there, for everybody, including dragons .Those who are willing are going far away from Warfang, to areas almost no dragon have ever been to, and seeing if they can find potential allies, or enemies." Terrador then turned and addressed the successors of the guardians.

"For you four, this will be your first assignment, whether you find something or not is irrelevant, what I expect is the four of you to learn how to work as a team, and survive on your own." Terrador stopped and turned his attention to Flame. "You don't have to go if you don't want to young dragon. The decision is yours." He finished, Flame nodded as Terrador turned back to the crowd.

"Those who want to go will have three days to say so, Volteer will be in the library for most of the day, you come to him and he will take you on your way. We will have one team of 9, four of these positions are already taken by the successors, so five more must volunteer for this to have the greatest chance of success, but as I have said before; you don't have to come to us if this disturbs you." Terrador stopped entirely, letting the news sink in for everybody on what he had said. Cynder thought hard about it still being unable to decide if she wanted to go, she ultimately decided to wait until the meeting was over, and ask the others what they think.

"That is all. You are dismissed." Most of the population had left at these words, the successors, Flame, and our group of four included, some had stayed for questions. Though Roy and the others didn't care to hear them.

Once they reached outside, the group was intercepted by Flame who flew in from behind the temple.

"Well?" He simply asked, before getting praise from everybody, Flame smirked in amusement before addressing them again.

"While I thank you for the praise. Cause it is true, I am that awesome, but what I'm asking about is whether or not your coming along with the others on this trip." The others froze and started to think, Cynder harder then anyone else.

" _Should I?_ " She asked in her head. " _I should go. It would help everyone in Warfang a whole lot._ " Cynder inwardly sighed at her indecision to chose what she wanted to do.

" _If Spyro was here, he would without a doubt say-_ " She never finished her thought for Roy had finished it for her, in his own words of course.

"I'll go."

Cynder whipped her head towards him in surprise, to see a determined and hopeful face worn by the electric drake.

"I can't explain it, but I'm having a sense of Deja vu, that I've done this before. I have a feeling that if I were to do it again, it might help me remember something. Besides, if it helps everyone else, then I'm definitely up for it, I don't want anybody getting hurt for something that I already know how to do." Sparx looked at him with his eyebrow raised in surprise, Cynder knew Sparx was thinking the same thing, as well as Flame and Ember. That what Roy had just did was something Spyro would do, he would instigate and convince everyone else to go with him just by inspiring them with his selflessness. Roy noticed their stares and met them with a kind smirk.

"I would like it if you all would come with me, after there are five more spots right? That's just enough to fit all five of us. Besides, didn't you want to find out what happened to me? I know that I did, and still do." Cynder froze at his words and stopped to think about it again before hearing a voice snap her out of it.

"I'm in."

She looked up again to see Sparx hovering next to Roy, a expectant look on his face, as if to say to her 'are you seriously thinking about this?' Cynder gave him a doubtful look, before seeing Flame walking up next to them.

"Nobody had to convince me. I already knew from the start that I was going." Flame turned and face Cynder and Ember, a proud expression on his face and yet you could see him asking them to come if you looked at his eyes, Ember looked down and sighed, before walking to where the three stood before turning to look at the black dragoness, who stood frozen to her spot, Roy's smirk turned into a smile as he held out a paw for Cynder to take.

"Well Cynder? Are you coming?" The looked at his face and froze. For that one singular moment, to Cynder's eyes Roy's light yellow scales had suddenly turned purple and the electric drake was not who Cynder saw standing in front of her with his paw stretched out, and a kind smile on his face. Cynder smiled sadly and nodded, taking Roy's paw and walking towards them, she forced away the tears that she felt coming and looked at them with fire burning in her eyes.

"Yes I am." Roy's smile turned brighter at hearing her answer.

"Great to have you on board." He spoke calmly, Cynder nodded with a smirk on her face, the group of five then decided to head to the Library to see Volteer. While on their way someone called after them.

"Hey guys wait up!" The group of five turned to see Grail running up to them, with the other three successors walking behind him.

"Oh hey Grail what's up?" Flame asked startling Cynder, Roy, and Sparx. Grail gave a huge grin as he looked at them, before turning and waiting for the other three to catch up before addressing them.

"I want to go with you." Flame and Sparx looked at the earth dragon like he was stupid, while Cynder, Ember, and Roy gave him confused looks.

"But aren't you already going?" Ember pointed out, Grail just sat there smiling, before being whipped by Mysti.

"What he means is that where ever you guys go, we follow." The group of five looked even more confused, why did they say that? Was what they're saying is that they could all go their own separate ways? Or something else? Sparx was the one to decide to voice the question, and was answered by the shy Dante.

"What she means... Is that w-we could go our own separate ways. I-I- I mean if we wanted to... But what Mysti and Grail mean, is that we want to tr-travel with y-you guys... I-I-I mean if it's okay with you..." He quietly spoke, Roy smiled kindly, reassuring the crimson drake that he along with the other three could go with them. Dante nodded in gratitude before the eight heard a scoff, and turned to Yami who looked at Cynder,Flame,Ember,Roy, and Sparx in disgust.

"Why would we want these useless nobodies in our group?" She spoke in disrespect, successfully ticking off Roy and Flame to no end.

"What the heck did you just say?!" Flame roared, and Yami got in Flame's face and looked at him with a cocky grin, angering the fire dragon off even more.

"Let me put this in your language." She started speaking slowly to anger the red dragon even more. "Why would. We want. Useless. Pieces. Of crap. In our. Group." Flame looked liked he was about to put the sassy dragoness in her grave as slowly, and as painfully as he possibly could, before Roy pushed the two apart.

"Alright that's enough! I don't want any fighting here." He shouted, Flame scoffed and turned away, swearing the dragoness as he walked back to the others, Yami just shoved Roy's paw away, calling it filthy. Finally having enough Roy looked her straight in the eye, his face morphing into one of pure anger as he got in her face.

"Listen here. I don't know what your problem with us is. But you better get over it before you find your sorry tail in the infirmary. We did **nothing** to offend you, and here you are getting in our faces, if we did something that made you treat us this way I'm sorry. But whatever it was does not excuse you acting like a spoiled brat. So cool it. Right. Now. Before I do it for you." With that he gave her a cold glare to prove a point and returned to his friends, his kind smile instantly returning when he saw all of them -save for Dante who just smiled brightly- laughing at a joke Grail and Spax had made. Meanwhile Yami had stood there frozen. For as long as she could remember, nobody had ever spoken to her in that way, and for a minute there she thought she saw Roy's scales turn a shade darker. She soon shook out of it and glared at the back of electric drake's head venomously before tailing far behind the group of eight, who were heading towards the Library, where even in the distance they could see a huge crowd.

"Geez. Do that many people really want to go?" Flame asked as he stared at the mess that is the crowd in disbelief, Roy just solemnly nodded, the group stared at the commotion for a minute longer before looking around for any alternatives to get in, and some point realized that the roof is just about the only way to get in.

"Well roof it is then. Let's go!" Sparx cheered, and the eight dragons and one dragonfly flew to the roof. But luck seemed to be not on their side as the roof was in the same predicament, the group -minus Yami- groaned in frustration before Grail had an idea.

"I have and idea!" He yelled, getting smacked in his head by Mysti, who looked at him in disapproval. He lowered his head and apologized before leading the group to the side wall.

"Ok what are we gonna do here?" Ember asked, before feeling something tugging at her tail, she turned to see Dante lightly pulling, giving her a look as if to say 'you might want to back up.' Ember nodded and told the others to do so, soon only Grail was standing right up to the wall, for everyone else was a couple paces behind watching the earth dragon with curiosity.

"Alright people watch this." Grail started breathing slowly and calmly, the ground starting to react to his breathing as with every inhale, it would shake, and exhale, it would calm down, finally Grail looked up determinedly and brought one paw back, and swung it forward as hard as he could against the wall, emitting a yell as he did so. At first nothing happened, but then the group watched in awe as lines appeared and started to cut cleanly through the wall, until it made an outline big enough for the eight dragons and one dragonfly to fit through without a single problem. Suddenly, the wall inside the line started to disappear, and looked as if it was stuck in quick sand as it slowly fell into the ground until everything in the outline was gone. After praising Grail, the group looked inside to see Volteer as he tried to make sure everyone outside was going in one-at-a-time, which was obviously, failing. He noticed the group coming in from wall and sighed in relief.

"Are you five going to be the volunteers, recruitments, participants?" He asked hastily, Cynder nodded and then before she knew it, she had a paper shoved in her face.

"I'm dearly sorry. But I need you to write down the names of you and whoever is going to be traveling, adventuring, going with, partnered with you on your quest." Cynder took the paper and she along with the others can hear Cyril from the front door as he was pushing everybody back.

"And please make haste! I don't want these barbaric brutes to destroy this marvelous Library!" Cynder hastily dipped the tip of her tail in the ink on Volteer's desk and wrote down Roy's name first, then her, then Sparx, Flame, and finally Ember's, before giving the paper back to Volteer who pulled a microphone out of nowhere.

"ALL AUDITIONS, VOLUNTEER SPOTS, POSITIONS, ARE FULL!" He yelled at the top of his lungs, the microphone raising the voice to levels that made even the crowd freeze to cover their ears, after it echoed away, the crowd had hesitantly left, some grumbling and muttering swears under their breath. Volteer sighed, then looked at the names Cynder had written, Cyril coming up behind him to do the same, seeing the name Roy had piqued the Electric dragon's interest, who is this Roy? Terrador had mentioned him, that he was an electric dragon and that he was the reason Cynder is out of her room. Cyril saw the name as well and stared at it as Volteer turned to the former terror of the skies for answers.

"Pardon me for asking, but I must know, who is this Roy?" He asked, Cynder nodded and motioned for Roy to step forward, when he did, he stood next to Cynder, and immediately at seeing the younger electric drake, Volteer's eyes widened as he droped the mic in his paw, it hitting the ground hard, though he didn't pay any attention. Cyril flinched at hearing the sound it made and went to check why his companion had dropped it when he saw Roy, and to say his reaction was the same, would make anybody who said it become captain obvious.

"Oh my..." Cyril trailed off as he stared at Roy, who shifted uncomfortably under the gazing eyes of the two guardians. Volteer was the first to snap out of it, and apologized for staring before nudging the still frozen Cyril.

"Cyril. Staring is rude, I thought your supposed heritage would've taught you that. But it appears they are not as great as you make it seem." Cyril had just about turned into a fire dragon due to his anger, which he unleashed on Volteer, leading into another fight. Deciding that what was needed to do was done, Cynder and the others left Volteer and Cyril to duke it out verbally in the library.

While outside the group of nine wondered what to do next before Grail came up with the idea of Dodge Element.

"Though that's a horrible name, I'm up for it." Flame dully commented, Ember nodding in agreement, Roy looked at the two confused, then turned and gave Grail the same look, before finally turning to Cynder for answers.

"Dodge Element is like Dodge Ball, except for one crucial thing..." She trailed off as Mysti happily jumped in and finished for her.

"The ball is a special kind of ball. If you focused your element into it, it will start to glow, and when you throw it at someone or something, it will transfer the energy into whatever or whoever it hits, so in this game we fill it with enough energy that when it hits you, two things happen; one. It stings like the other world. Two. It leaves a visible mark on your skin that tells us you're out, and when you're out, you can't get back in until the round is over." Roy nodded at the cheerful dragoness with a smile, before hearing Flame say that it's time to pick team leaders, they all lined up while Grail asked to pick a number between one and ten. In the end Cynder and Mysti were the team leaders, and one by one they picked their members until there was no one left. So the teams were this; Team Cynder has pre-mentioned dragoness, Roy, Flame, and Ember. while Team Mysti has pre-mentioned dragoness, Yami, Grail, and Sparx. Dante being the referee as he doesn't exactly like to play these kind of games.

"Al-alright everybody ready?" He asked, everyone nodding as they all stared at the ball in the crimson drake's paw.

"Three. . . Two. . . One. . . Go!" He quickly shouted as he tossed the ball in the air, starting their first game.

Hours had passed since the start of the game, the sun was setting, and everybody was laying down panting and catching their breath on the now ruined grass. To say everyone -save for Dante- was exhausted would be a massive understatement, they had just finished the last round of their game, Cynder's team winning with almost a shut out. Roy smiled at his new friends before hearing his stomach growl, he blushed in embarrassment before hearing Flame's as well.

"Oops." He chuckled his blush easily seeable on his yellow scales. "Guess I forgot to eat." Yami was about to talk smack before her stomach growled as well, then everyone else next, they all froze then started laughing merrily, as if they were years old friends now meeting each other again. After relaxing Dante had asked the question of where to eat, Ember smiled and mentioned the restaurant that had now opened, everyone agreed with the pink dragoness and the group of nine friends headed towards their set destination. All chatting and laughing as they went along, though Roy stayed silent the whole way, all he could think about, was that he wasn't sure on a lot of things. . .

. . . But if he was sure about on thing, then it would be this

" _I don't know what's going to happen, or where this is going to take us. . ._ "

" _But I know one thing. . ._ "

" _I'll face whatever's coming with my head held high. . . And I won't do it for myself. . ._ "

" _I'll do it for them._ "

* * *

 **KDS2: KABOOOM *Presses a button that causes an explosion!**

 **Roy: *Wakes up* Whoa what happened?!**

 **KDS2: Chapter six is down.**

 **Flame: Seriously? That's why you did it?**

 **KDS2: *nods***

 **Grail: I like explosions...**

 **Mysti: I don't like Yami's attitude.**

 **Yami: *Puts on sunglasses* Deal with it.**

 **Roy: Oh I will...**

 **Cynder: Now everybody calm down.**

 **Grail: Well can I do it?**

 **KDS2: Huh?**

 **Grail: The notification thing.**

 **KDS2: Uhh ok I guess...**

 **Grail: Yay! Ok. As usual constructive criticism is appreciated, thank you for reading! S-**

 **Roy: See ya next chapter!**

 **Cynder: And take care everybody!**

 **Grail: Awww I wanted to say that...**

* * *

 **A/N: Btb here's how to pronounce their names:**

 **Grail = Gray-el**

 **Yami = Ya-me**

 **Mysti = Mist-ee**

 **Dante = Do I really need to explain this?**


	7. Chapter 7

**KDS2: Here is chapter seven! Sorry for being late and I mean** _ **really**_ **late (Three months late to be exact), I've been very busy, but chapter's here, so please forgive me and let's get started right Flame?**

 **Flame: Are you fricking Kiding me!? Are You Seriously - I - GH -GRAAAH!**

 **Roy: Flame! Calm down! *Wraps wings around Flame***

 **Flame: LET ME AT HIM! LET ME AT HIM! *Starts struggling and smacking Roy***

 **Cynder: Jesus Flame! *Jumps onto FLames back***

 **KDS2: Uh... *Starts shifting away* I-I had school and uh.. A lot of other stuff... You know...?**

 **Flame: NOPE! I'M DONE! *Explodes with fire sending Roy and Cynder away, then Chases KDS2* YOU PAY TODAY!**

 **KDS2: OH SHIT! *Bolts***

 **Roy: *Groans and gets up* Well... There they go...**

 **Cynder: *Get's up as well* Guess we have to do the naration for now... *Looks at Reader*... *Sigh* Do we really have to say the stupid disclamer** _ **every**_ **chapter?**

* * *

The cheers and roars of the citizens could be heard from miles away as all the residents in the city of Warfang watched the event that was 8 young dragons (and 1 dragonfly) going out into a world that was for the most part, still unknown to them. Together, the group was lined up side by side, Roy at the very left, Cynder next to him with Sparx hovering in between, Then comes Flame and Ember, then the guardian apprentices; Yami, Grail, Mysti, and Dante.

"How much longer are they going to take? We've been here for almost ten minutes." Yami groans quietly, earning a glare from both Cynder and Roy.

"As long as they need to; remember, the guardians are at this point, this city's leaders, they might have a lot on their hands." Roy replies in a low voice. Cynder glared at Yami for a moment longer before looking ahead.

"Well the waits over for here they are." The poison dragoness says in a low almost dull voice as the three remaining guardians flew down on to the platform. Tons of loud roars and cheers tore through the sky as Terrador walked up to the group of nine with Volteer on his left and Cyril his right. Terrador cleared his throat with a noise, and suddenly, the whole crowed fell silent.

"This journey is not just something to slack off on, nor is it a daily activity. We expect you to go off far, and hopefully find other dragons and living creatures to help with our mission for peace." Terrador said with his usual serious and low deep tone of voice, the group of nine nodded before Volteer added to his companion's prep talk.

"Of course though it's okay, alright, fine, acceptable if you come back with no other dragons, creatures, life forms, or sentient beings." The electric dragon said in his fast moving tongue, of which everyone except Grail could understand, proven by the earth dragon's noise of 'huh?' with a tilt of his head. Cyril mentally faced palmed at Volteer before explaining what the yellow guardian was trying to say.

"What this babbling buffoon means, is that it's okay if you come back without having found anything." The ice dragon says in a dull almost annoyed tone, earning him a harsh glare from the electricity guardian. This time, Grail nodded at the information, Cyril huffed at the young earth dragon, muttering something about discipline and his blood line as Terrador continued his farewell speach.

"May the ancestors look after you, and help guide you to a better path" Terrador said seriously, everyone nodded and repeated Terrador's line back to the earth dragon, as the group of nine turned towards the entrance, the three guardians stepped back as the crowd yelled put their own farewells and good wishes. Cynder tried to walk to the front of the group, but was stopped by Yami.

"Excuse me, who died and made you leader?" The electric dragoness asked rudely, earning a glare from Flame, a harsher glare from Roy, a raised eyebrow from Ember, and from Cynder and Sparx well... If looks could kill...

"How about the dragon who saved your ass twice?" The yellow firefly answered with venom in his voice. Cynder then pushed past Yami, followed by Sparx, who was grumbling something, Roy, who didn't even look at the electric dragoness, Ember just shook her head as she walked past, and Flame glared at Yami until the four stopped in front of the apprentices. Flame glanced back at the guardians and nodded, the aforementioned dragons soon doing the same. Cynder glanced around before she looked back at the group of eight behind her with the smirk that she commonly had.

"Are we all ready?" She asks. Roy nodded with a small soft grin while Flame gave a nod with a big grin, Ember gave a thumbs up, and the apprentices all answered positive.

"As ready as one could ever be." Sparx pipes with two thumbs up. Cynder nodded before opening her wings.

"Alright then. Let's go!" She exclaims before shooting out into the sky like a bullet, followed by other flaps of wings and a roaring crowed as the nine set off on their journey, Cynder glancing back at the city and watching it slowly get smaller and smaller.

' _Wish me luck... Okay Spyro?_ ' She mentally asks as she flies before looking ahead. Roy glancing at the black dragoness before looking at Flame, who nodded at the electric dragon. Roy then flew a little faster to be at Cynder's side as he nudged her.

"Hey.. Are you alright?" He asks a little worriedly. Cynder blinks before looking at him, then hearing a couple of flaps and looking at her other side to see Flame and Ember flying side by side, looking at the former Terror of the Skies for her answer. Cynder stayed silent for a moment before smiling.

"Of course I'm fine." She answers simply, meanwhile Grail looked like he was about ready to bounce all over the place while Mysti didn't look all that better, the two chatting and laughing like they were in a play ground. Yami groaned in frustration before looking back at the two.

"Will you two calm the hell down?" She asks in a voice that said she was clearly annoyed.

"Not in a million years!" Both the earth and ice dragons said simultaneously, the earth one looking over at the electric dragoness

"We're flying, and going on an adventure, with Cynder! The dragoness who was by Spyro's side and helped him save Warfang, twice! There's no way we're gonna 'calm the hell down'!" Grail says excitedly, pulling another huff out of the attitude filled Yami, who decided to ignore the two excited dragons and looked over at Dante, who seemed to be practically off in his own world, staring off into space and only paying enough attention to make sure he was going in the same direction as the others.

"Hey pipsqueak." Yami calls, causing Dante to yelp in surprise before looking at her, albeit shyly.

"Y-yes?" The fire dragon asks in a voice just loud enough for her to hear, Yami didn't even bother to look at the fire apprentice and just stared ahead.

"Don't even think about chickening out on this you hear?" She says in a cold threatening voice. "There's no way in ancestors that I'm not gonna become an electric dragoness just because you can't seem to pull even an inch of courage out of that stick you call a body." She says as she glares at the smaller dragon, causing him to cower slightly in fear as he watched Yami snort before going back to pretending that Dante didn't exist at all. Said fire dragon stared up at Yami with a mix of confusion and hurt before sighing a little shakily and looking out into the distance.

* * *

"I hope you know what you're doing Volteer." Said the voice that belonged to Cyril as he looked over at the electric guardian once the group of nine was too far to see. Volteer slightly tilted his head and raised an eyebrow.

"Whatever do you mean?" Volteer asks with a slight smirk, making Cyril scoff and glare before answering.

"Don't play imbecile Volteer, your enough of an idiot as it is." The ice dragon remarks before sighing and continuing. "What I mean, is choosing Yami as your apprentice. There are a lot of others you could've chosen, like that dragon electric dragon... I forgot his name... But that's not the point, point is yeah he's a barbaric moron and a thief, but with enough discipline-"

"I know what I am doing Cyril, your remarks,comments,criticism, and opinion is not needed thank you very much." Volteer states. "Yes, Yami is prideful, and stubborn as ancestors know it, but with this journey, hopefully she can learn, she can evolve, and become better suited for the role than any other dragon. Isn't it a similar case,situation,problem, obstetrical you've come across with Mysti? And Terrador with Grail?" Cyril went to say something, only to end up holding his breath, and only speaking after Volteer gave a smug smirk.

"Damn. You win this time." He growls quietly with a glare, Terrador snorting with the smallest smile as he watched his friends half discuss, half bicker, before looking behind him as he heard a voice.

"Wish we could go with them." Hunter says as he approaches Terrador, with Zoe flying next to him on his right, and Bianca on his left.

"I understand your wants Hunter. But the group requirement was nine, and those five had signed up already." Terrador says calmly in his usual deep and low voice, Hunter nodding.

"I know, and I'm just saying... Maybe for old times sake in the case of Cynder..." The cheetah says with a sigh, Terrador nodded and smiled ever so slightly.

"Perhaps on the next journey, I will arrange for you three to go along." The earth dragon suggests, Hunter smiling and nodding in thanks, the cheetah then turning to leave before looking at Bianca who ran up to Terrador.

"Please Terrador? Could we go with them? I mean you only said that the requirement was nine, not the limit." The rabbit says smartly and pointedly, Terrador blinking blankly before smiling.

"How smart of you. Yes I did not say what the limit was..." The green old dragon agrees before looking over at Hunter.

"Hunter." He called sternly, the named male blinking before looking at the earth guardian.

"It seems your friend has proven a point. You have my permission to go with Cynder and the others." Hunter smiled brightly and nodded.

"Thank you Terrador." He says with a bow, Bianca and Zoe soon following, and Terrador bowing his own head as Cyril and Volteer finally stopped fighting and noticed the three others in the direction the group left in. The electric and Ice guardians then walked over with a curious expression.

"Terrador, what is going on?" Was the question Cyril had asked as he approached, Volteer walking over to Hunter's group who had ended their bows.

"It seems that Hunter, Bianca, and Zoe wish to go with Cynder and the others. And it seems that their wish has been granted." He explains as he looks at Cyril, who blinked in surprise before looking at Hunter and his small group.

"But how? The requirement was only-"

"And that's how, you guys said the requirement. Not the limit." Zoe points out with a grin, causing Volteer to laugh and clap his wings.

"Haha! How smart, ingenious, apt, and attentive of you!" The electric dragon says happily as he continued to clap his wings for a moment longer before stopping.

"Aww shucks Volty, you're gonna make me blush." Bianca says as she waves her hand, her nickname causing Volteer to blink in surprise and Cyril to laugh.

"Volty?" The surprised bee colored dragon asked before glaring harshly at Cyril who was still laughing hard

"That's what she said! Hahaha! Vo-" Was all Cyril got to say before he was bull rushed by Volteer, and the two started physically fighting in a very comical way, though it ended in a draw as Terrador broke up the fight with an earth spike raising up in between the two. The earth guardian sighing in frustration before looking at Hunter and the others.

"Make haste before Cynder and the others are too far, and may the ancestors be with you." Terrador says, Cyril and Volteer looking at the small trio and nodding as if to say the same thing. Hunter, Bianca, and Zoe nodded before heading off as fast as they could in the same direction Cynder and the others left in. The three guardians walking to the edge of the giant wall and staring off after the group.

" _What do you have planned for us this time Ancestors? What do you intend to do with those twelve..._ " Was the earth guardian's thoughts as he stared with a blank expression, Cyril having a small frown, and Volteer a small smile as they stared off after the group of twelve, seven of which had already gone through a traumatic experience and 2 who have experienced it multiple times. The currently remaining three guardians could only hope that nothing just as bad, or worse, will happen to the possibly new guardians of Warfang, and their leaders.

* * *

"I swear to all that is holy. If you two don't calm down right now!" Yami yells angrily as Grail and Mysti were currently flying in circles, and were generally being childeren, and laughing at the pissed electric dragoness, who was about to go on her word before the voice of Flame stopped her.

"You're gonna what? You so much as scratch them, and I promise you'll never become a guardian, and I'll make sure of it, and I don't even have to lay a single claw on you." The male dragon says coldly with a glare, Yami huffing before looking away and trying her best to ignore Grail and Mysti, though they weren't safe from Flame's lecture either.

"And you two, please calm down, I know you're excited, I am too, but that's no reason to act like hatchlings." The fire dragon reasons, the earth dragon and ice dragoness thinking about it for a moment before shrugging and going back to formation. Flame nodded with a slight smile before looking at his left to see Dante flying right in between him and Ember, Flame stared at him for a moment.

" _What the..? Wasn't he just next to Yami?..."_ He thinks before shaking out of it, smiling slightly, and nudging Dante with his tail.

"How you doing Dante?" Flame asks, gaining both Ember's, and Dante's attention (Though the former looked at the latter instead of Flame)

"U-uh... O-okay I guess..." The shy fire dragon answers, causing both Ember and Flame to smile slightly.

"Hey, there's nothing to be shy about, l promise you that it's okay." Ember says softly with a little smile, Dante looking at her and blushing a little as he nodded, the dragoness nodding as well before looking at Flame, who was looking at Dante with a similar warm smile. The fire dragoness tilted her head ever so slightly as she stared at the fire dragon for a little, before blinking out of it a looking ahead with the tiniest of blushes.

" _What was I doing?"_ She asks herself, wondering why she had suddenly decided to stare at the ruby red dragon, who was currently trying to nudge a smile out of his student, and was succeeding.

"There you go pal. See? Not so hard right?" Flame asks with a soft grin as he looked at Dante who currently had a small smile on his face. The smaller fire dragon nodded before looking ahead with a slightly more optimistic look in his eyes, Flame satisfied with the result of his actions and doing the same. Unaware of the two leaders of the group watching him.

"Wow... Flame sure would make a good uncle... Or father.." Roy says, Cynder nodding with a small noise.

"Though I think he'd end up being more of an older brother to his own son rather than father.." Cynder comments quietly, causing Roy and Sparx to laugh, and the subject of their conversation to look at them both curiously before shrugging and looking ahead.

"So Roy.." Cynder says with a mix of curiosity and seriousness in her voice. "What do you remember about your past and how you ended up the way we found you? If anything?" The black dragoness asks, Sparx soon looking at the electric dragon who was looking down in thought.

"I... I remember a small village... A bright flash of light... A huge ton of pain tearing through my entire body... And... Something else but I can't place it.." The electric dragon answers a little quietly with a sigh, looking over at the former terror of the skies and the firefly apologetically. Sparx then placed a hand on the way larger male's horn in reassurance.

"Don't sweat it Roy my boy." The dragonfly says with a grin, causing Roy and Cynder to look at him with a raised eyebrow.

"Seriously? 'Roy my boy'?"Roy asked. Sparx then answered the simply and somehow funny question with a content prideful smirk.

"Yep!" Roy continued to stare at his dragonfly friend for a moment longer before chuckling and looking ahead with a smile, momentarily wondering if Hunter and the others would follow, as judging by their interaction with Cynder (Specifically Hunter) they must know each other pretty well

* * *

Currently Hunter was jumping from tree to tree,occasionally running on the grassy green floor, and was somehow silent, with ninja like stealth the cheetah moved through the forest with ease as if moving through a simple playground. Bianca, and Zoe behind him as he went, the rabbit floating on her staff, and the fairy flying close to the sorceress. It had been a while since they had set off to catch up with Cynder and the others, and at this point would probably take a while to turn and get back to the city, that is, if they didn't get lost in the thick crowd of trees first.

"So are you sure you know exactly which way they went?" Zoe calls to Hunter, who barely gave her a glance as he was focused on moving through the terrain, but still answered.

"Yes, I was there when they departed, so I have an idea of where they are currently headed." He answers. Zoe giving a nod with a smile in thanks before looking ahead.

"So what's up with you and Sparx huh?" Bianca asks with a sly grin, causing Zoe to look at her curiously.

"What are you saying?"

"You know exactly what I'm saying... Opposites attract after all.."

Zoe stared at Bianca with a look that simply said. 'You kidding me?' Before answering with a slight glare.

"There is **nothing** 'up' with me and that annoying stupid yellow... Bone head!" Zoe yells agrily, causing Bianca to laugh and Hunter to give the smallest smirk.

"Well I was just messing with you... But... If that reaction is really telling me anything..." Bianca says as she looks behind her at Zoe with an evily sly smile, causing the fairy's eyes to widen before she glared harshly.

" **Don't**. Even. Dare." She simply says, causing the sorceress to shrug.

"Fine, deny your feelings." The flying rabbit says simply and a little dully.

"Slow down a little..." Hunters says as he slows his speed tremendously and started waiting a couple of seconds before jumping to the next tree, causing Bianca and Zoe to look at him.

"Why is something wrong?" Bianca asks with worry in her voice, Zoe asking something similar at the same time, Hunter looked over at both girls with a slightly serious face before grinning a little and pointing up.

"We're right below them." The Archer of Avalar says as he looks up, Bianca and Zoe doing the same, to see a group of nine silhouettes flying high in the sky, and a glowing yellow light at the lead, Zoe smiled.

"Guess I should tell them that we're here." The fairy says before Hunter shook his head a little with a noise of disagreement.

"No, let's wait till they land." He says, earning a nod from Bianca, and a hesitant nod from Zoe, which Bianca picked up on fairly fast.

"No! I already said that I despise that guy!" The fairy objects angrily and quite loudly, Bianca shrugged, muttering about how stubborn some people can get before looking over at Hunter, who continued forward in the same direction as the group of dragons and a firefly, however instead of going through the trees like they were a roller coaster, Hunter jumped down silently to the floor and walked, giving him confused looks from both Bianca and Zoe.

"Hunter? Why?.. Are we walking?" Bianca asks as she gets off her staff and walks next to the cheetah, who simply takes a deep relaxing breath.

"Because there is currently no need to use up energy like that." He simply answers, earning a huff from the fairy.

"Man... I wanted to fly ahead..." She mutters, Bianca giggling as she walked beside her friend. none of the members of this group knew what they were exactly looking for, or where they were going, so all they did was hope. Hope to maybe find something, what that thing is might be different for each and everyone of them. But whether or not they would find it was unknown to all of them, so they hoped for the most, for it was the best course of action for our heroes and apprentices, as well as the only.

* * *

 **Roy: I feel like the last couple of lines for this chapter wasn't as good the others...**

 **Cynder: Oh well, at least we got this in and finished.**

 **Ember: True, though it was a little shorter...**

 **KDS2: *is lying on the floor covered in ash* Shut up.. I just got my ass burned... And I'm just recovering from a writer's block...**

 **Roy: I guess so, *Glances at Flame who's just sitting down with his back facing the group***

 **KDS2: Well... I guess that's it for now, until next chapter everyone..**

 **Cynder: Constructive criticism is always appreciated, see you next chapter and take care, everyone.**


	8. Chapter 8

**KDS2: Hey ya'll... I'm really sorry... Can you forgive me?**

 **Flame: *Huffs* I can't...**

 **KDS2: I'm really sorry... But... Let's get on with the chapter.**

* * *

Soon before our group of dragons and a firefly had noticed, it was already sun set. So they all had decided on finding a place to sleep at ahead of time. Which took quite a while before they eventually found a cave that could hold all of them and more. Feeling satisfied with their find, the group of nine settled down in the cave after checking to make sure nothing else lived inside of it. So this is where they all currently resided as sunset turned to night.

"Come on! That's not fair!" Grail exclaims angrily. Currently, he and Dante were playing a small game of Paw, Wing, Tail, and that had been the fifth time the earth dragon had lost in a row. Dante flinched just a little at the outburst before looking at Grail with a sheepish look.

"B-but how is that n-not fair?" The fire dragon asks curiously. "I went at the same time…" Grail made a weird face at the shy fire dragon before huffing and getting up.

"Fine then, if you won't admit to cheating. I won't play." The earth dragon says decidedly before walking off with a pout, leaving behind a confused fire dragon.

" _What did I do wrong?_ " He mentally asks before looking over at Roy and the others, who were currently planning something.

"Alright, so how far have we gotten?" Flame asks as he looks over at Ember, who looked up slightly in thought.

"Well… We've been flying for a couple of hours… So about 200 to 250 miles away from Warfrang to the east?" The dragoness answers. Cynder nodding in acknowledgement.

"Alright then… So we should head in this direction." Cynder says pointing towards one of the walls of the cave, but they all knew what the dragoness meant, they were going to go south.

"You sure Cynder? I mean you know what's in that direction right?" Roy asks, the dragoness in question nodding with confidence.

"It's a thick forest I know, in fact, one of the thickest recorded forests in the world… Which is why we should search there first." The former Terror of the Skies says smartly. Roy, blinking before nodding, then blinking again as he heard an annoyed sigh. His eye half closing in a 'seriously?' look before turning over to see Yami, Flame glaring almost immediately while Ember raises an eyebrow.

"But what if we get lost? You're forgetting that the trees are too thick for us to fly through." Yami says reasonably, but also with a lot of attitude.

"I could leave a trail of burnt grass." Ember pipes, Yami glancing at her with what seemed to be a half glare before looking at Flame as he spoke.

"While that might seem like a good idea… There's a chance that we could accidentally set the whole forest on fire, and that sure as hell isn't our goal." The male says quite dully, earning a contemplative look from Ember, before hearing Cynder speak, and looking over at the multi-typed dragoness. Ember and Yami looking over at her as well.

"How about we drag our tail blades against the ground? Leave a thick trail in the dirt so that we don't get lost, or hurt the forest." Cynder suggests, Yami trying to find any holes in that plan but not being able to see any, which only made the dragoness huff.

"Fine… It seems like a good enough plan…" The electric dragoness says. Flame nodding with the faintest smile, while Ember just gave a gentle smile. Both then looked over at Roy as he had started to speak

"Then that's our plan, so get some rest cause we'll be leaving in the morning." Cynder and the other three nodded before they all stepped away from the circle to go off to their own devices, Flame going over to Dante who seemed to cower a little.

"Hey why are you so shy all the time?" Flame asks as he sits down next to the fairly smaller dragon, who seemed to look down at his own tail, which curled around him slightly.

"I…. Don't really know…. It's just that…. The world is a little s-scary... I-I guess..." Flame gave a soft smile and nudged his student softly with his muzzle, Dante flinching a little before looking at his teacher.

"I understand your fear, and believe it or not I was the same; I used to think the world was too big and that nothing I did would really change anything." Flame says glancing outside the cave, Dante soon doing the same. Both stared off for a moment before the younger fire dragon looked up at the older dragon.

"What happened?... How d-did you overcome that… That kind of doubt?" Dante asks in his soft shy voice. Flame took a deep relaxing breath before looking at his metaphorical younger brother, the vibrant red dragon's eyes full of passion.

"I learned that it isn't about changing the whole world… But about changing yourself, growing and learning that it's about changing your own world, your own life, and helping everyone that's in the world that belongs to you." Flame answers, Dante looking out the cave before looking down at himself.

"I… I think I understand..." He says looking at the floor, Flame laughed slightly before softly placing a wing on the crimson dragon's head and rubbing softly.

"It's okay… I don't expect you to understand fully on the first go… But don't worry, you will with time." He says before standing up, and heading over to Cynder, stopping for a moment to look back at his shy student.

"I promise."

Dante blinked a couple of times before giving a small smile and nodding, the shy dragon then turned and looked over at Mysti, who along with Grail, were trying to get Yami to play a game with them, and didn't seem like it was going well.

"Come on please?" The ice dragoness asks eagerly, Yami telling dragoness to back off and leave her alone, however, as soon as she said that, Grail went and said the same thing, which made the electric dragoness just about ready to scream her head off. Seeing what was about to happen, Dante sighed before walking over and standing next to Yami.

"L-look G-Grail… M-Mysti… I know, that you want to play… But… But Yami doesn't, s-so why don't you two play with each other inst-tead?" The crimson drake suggests relatively quietly. Grail and Mysti blinked before looking at one another, before shrugging, smiling, and then looking at Dante.

"Why don't you join us?" Mysti asks, Grail nodding in agreement. Now it was Dante's turn to blink as he stared at the two for a moment before smiling a tiny one.

"Sure." Was his answer, Grail and Mysti grinned big before trotting off to a corner to play in while Yami huffed and glanced outside the entrance to the cave, a bored and irritated expression on her face as she laid there and mentally, as well as reluctantly. thanked Dante.

' _Please let this day be over with already…'_ Was her mental thought process as she continued to stare outside before seeing something wiz by the bushes and tress.

"The hell?" The electric dragoness mutters as she stands and heads over, walking past Cynder who noticed her companion and got up as well.

"Where are you going?" She asks with a slight tilt of her head, Yami turning her head towards the former terror of the skies, but keeping her eyes on the bushes and trees.

"Saw something. I can take care of it." She says before continuing on. Cynder rolling her eyes before following after her, as soon as Yami had noticed Cynder following her, she flipped around and faced the black dragoness.

"Look I said I could handle it myself okay? So why don't you just go and stay with your little buddies?" She hisses, Cynder gave Yami the most bored and dull expression the dragoness could muster before turning around and heading back with a sigh at the apprentice's stubbornness. Yami smiled slightly, figuring she had won that little argument before turning and leaving the cave carefully.

Almost as soon as she left, the sounds of the world that she couldn't hear before in the cave she now could, the sound of the wind, the sounds of birds and the rest of life as it moved on. The sounds and the scenery of the forest with the sunset light bursting through the thickness in what looked like beams of energy almost brought a smile to the electric dragoness. However the beauty of the scene left her mind as she heard a loud buzzing and turned quickly around with lighting already charged in her mouth, a glimpse of red and tannish yellow flashed before her eyes before in a state of panic, she fired her bolt, and it traveled through the air for a second before it suddenly went off course completely and into the ground, the source being an arrow with half of it (including the head) being made of steel.

"Oh shoot…" Yami almost exclaims in surprise before looking at the owner of the arrow.

"Who are you?!" Came her question as she charged a stronger beam of lightening in her mouth. The mysterious person looked back at the dragoness before turning to face her and bowing.

"My apologies for disturbing you." Came the words in a deep voice that no doubt belonged to a male. Yami still not lowering her guard as she stared at the person, she stayed silent as currently her mouth was full of lightening and she was waiting for the mysterious figure to go on.

"I came here following my friends, I am-" The voice said about to introduce himself before stiffening slightly as a bright yellow light was suddenly in his face.

"Hunter!" Sparx almost yells happily with a big grin. "I honestly didn't think you'd come along for my epic quest!" Yami started to relax her stance and let the electricity turn into energy and flow back through her body.

"You know this guy?" Yami asks with a raised eyebrow, before jumping slightly as a voice off to her side spoke.

"It's not just Sparx that knows him." Cynder says walking over, having been drawn out at the sound of lightening being fired, and the dragonflies' outcry, Ember at her side and Flame behind the two as they approached with smiles.

"Ahh, there you are." Hunter says grinning slightly at the three friends before looking at Sparx and backing away slightly to give himself some personal space, he then addressed the three males and three females about his reason of why he was there.

"Me and the others have gotten permission from the guardians to accompany you on your journey, of which I have to thank Bianca for." He informs, Ember's eyes brightening up at the news.

"Bianca's here?" She asks happily, the cheetah nodding to confirm before everyone looked at Sparx as he seemed to be panicking.

"If you're here…. And Bianca's here…. Then that means… That means…" He says fearfully before he heard a voice he was all too familiar with.

"Aww… You sound so happy to see me, I'm touched!" Came the sarcastic voice of Zoey as she flew over with an almost sadistic grin at the dragonfly, who immediately pointed a finger at her.

"I'd be more happy to see a Friggin' ape then your ugly mug!" The glowing yellow bug yells. "Hell, I bet even a gremlin would die if it saw just how horrible you look!" If looks and glares alone could kill, then Sparx would no longer exist ever with how darkly Zoey was glaring at him, but the simple tension in the air caused a laugh to suddenly burst out from Yami of all people. Which caused everyone to give her weird/confusing looks.

"Um….What's going on?" Came the question from Roy as he emerged from the cave with the three other apprentices in tow, Dante immediately going over to Flame and Cynder and semi hiding between them before he noticed the cheetah.

"Hunter!" He says happily which kinda surprised most of the others as the little crimson dragon ran over to the cheetah and looked up at him with a big heart warming smile.

"Ah, hello Dante, I saw you at the announcement of apprentices, congratulations." He says kindly while smiling at his friend, Dante nodding a little enthusiastically while blushing ever so slightly in shyness.

"Thank you." The fire dragon says without stuttering which made even Yami blink in surprise.

"How does Hunter know Dante?" Ember asks curiously, Cynder leaning over slightly to answer her question.

"They've met before, during the…. The battle with… Gnorc…" Cynder says, her voice becoming reluctant near the end as she accidentally caused herself to remember her loss. Ember immediately looked at the dark dragoness with a slightly panicked look in her eyes.

"Oh! I'm sorry Cynder! I-I didn't mean-" She says trying to find the right words to say before Cynder raised a wing.

"I'm okay Ember…. I've moved on." She says, the tears that were building ever so slightly in her eyes going away. The words and news made the fire dragoness smile slightly in kindness before nodding and looking at the two conversing friends again before she noticed Mysti and Grail simply watching everyone and going over.

"What's up you two?" She asks curiously and tenderly, earning a surprised look from Grail, and a blink in her direction from Mysti before both gave a small shrug.

"I've never seen Danty like this…" Mysti replies, Grail nodding in agreement as Roy started looking around for a certain bunny.

"Well, it's like what an old friend use to say to me." Ember says with a smile as she glanced at the red crimson dragon, who was finishing his conversation with Hunter.

"Don't judge a book by its cover." It was at that moment that they all heard a slightly high pitch scream that belong to no other than the only male electric dragon present, Cynder and the others immediately looked towards the source to see Roy shivering ever so slightly as he stared at a big-grinning Bianca who almost couldn't stifle her laugh.

"It's not funny! I thought it was something I had to ru- I-I mean fight against!" Sparx shouts, Cynder sighing and reluctantly agreeing.

"Heehee, sorry." Bianca sheepishly apologizes while rubbing a wrist with a hand before climbing all the way out the bush. "But I couldn't resist the temptation."

Roy huffed fairly angrily. "Still doesn't justify doing it…. But I forgive you." He says looking at the bunny with a slightly irritated look in his eyes.

"I don't.." Yami says bluntly before looking around at the now almost night surroundings. "Well… I guess the best that came out of that is that it wasted all the time we had to wait until night came…" She quips, Flame reluctantly agreeing.

"Then… We should probably go inside. You know, before something finds out we're here.." Zoey says glancing around a little warily; this sudden change of attitude is one that definitely didn't go unnoticed by a certain dragonfly, who immediately decided to take advantage of it.

"Like what?! Like the apes?! Giant spiders?! Oh dear god I forgot that they're everywhere in here!" He yells in fear, and that only seemed to make Zoey look around more frantically before hearing the dragonfly laugh hard and looked to see him almost fall out of the air due to how hard the guy was laughing.

"Holy wow! You-.. You actually fell for it!" He teases between laughs, and Zoey stared at him for a good long minute before suddenly fuming with anger and flying back inside, Flame rolling his eyes at the two before following inside, the others smiling at the events (Save for a certain female dragoness) before going inside the cave to get some rest as well, Grail staying at the entrance to close it up, leaving holes for air, before going and joining the others in sleep.

When morning came, Cynder woke up with a slightly happier mood than usual, glancing around her at her fellow group members, most of which, seemed to be just waking up (Save for Hunter who was already up and about). The poison dragoness then got up herself before heading over to the only electric being that seemed to have ignored everything around it.

"Hey… Wake up it's time to go." Cynder says gently while nudging the sleeping dragon, and it took a couple of moments before the electric dragon groaned and finally got up.

"How was your sleep Roy?" She asks with a small smirk and a tilt of her head. The male made a small mumbling noise as he rubbed his eyes with his tail before smiling gently.

"It was… Pretty good." He answers, his voice sounding like he was hiding something, which Cynder immediately caught but decided not to push on.

"Well then come on, the others are getting ready so you should too." She requests, the electric dragon nodding before looking down to take a moment and remember the plan before looking at the multi-typed dragoness.

"Alright… Let's go."

* * *

 **KDS2: *Sigh* I'm sorry…. I probably lost all my follows by now…. But I can't let that faze me! Flame! No burning or else I can't make the next chapter!**

 **Flame: Damnit! *Walks away***

 **KDS2: Again... Sorry for disappearing again... But aside from that, I'd like to thank all of you who have reviewed, favored, and follow my story so far, re-reading/seeing all of them has inspired me to continue this hopefully unique fanfic.**

 **Roy: And that's good to hear!**

 **Cynder: Yep! Now, are you gonna continue working on the second chapter of The First Year?**

 **KDS2:** ***Nods* All in due time Cyn. Now again, thanks for all the reviews, and I promise you that next chapter will definitely have more going on. See ya next time and take care Everyone!**


	9. Chapter 9

**All right, it's time I really dug in and got to continuing this hopefully great story for all of you guys who support me so much. Now let's get started!**

* * *

"Mom…."

"Dad…"

"_..."

"Hey Dad! Guess what we found?"

"Mom~ Can't I just choose to not watch over my brother? He's is old enough to take care of himself…."

"Mom…. Dad…. Why am I so different…?"

"For the last time, I'm not going to play hide and seek! We're way to old for that anyway!"

"Brother? Hey _! Where'd you go?!"

"Don't do that! Get away as fast as you can!"

"_!"

"Roy…?"

Roy blinked in surprise at his name being called before looking up at Cynder. Grail, and Flame standing next to her, all three staring at the yellow dragon with both curiosity and worry (More curiosity on Grail's part, and worry on Cynder's). "Are you okay?"

Roy stared at the black dragoness for a couple of moments before mentally shaking his head and giving the three a kind, reassuring smile.

"I'm fine, just remembering the dream I had last night." He informs sincerely, Grail nodding with a happy 'Okay!' before running off ahead to join the others, Flame raising an eyebrow before going to walk next to Ember. Cynder however continued to stare at the electric male, who was starting to feel very awkward about the scene before the former terror of the skies spoke.

"What were you dreaming about? You sounded and seem very confused, the same way you did earlier when I first woke you up." Cynder asks quietly.

"Was I that obvious?" Roy asks sheepishly. Cynder giving a small nod, a smile grazing her face as her expression became more relaxed.

"Is an ape hairy?" She asks with a small chuckle, Roy looking down at the floor with a little blush.

For the past 3 hours since they woke up, the group had been trudging their way through the thick forest outside the cave they slept in the previous night, moving in the same direction the dragons and dragonfly were once flying in for the mythical beings deciding to travel through land as to keep Hunter and his little group with them and not run the chance of their friends getting lost. While most of them have been unusually highly aware of their surrounds in the past one hundred and eighty minutes, Roy had been staring off in random directions the whole time. Cynder had noticed it and decided not to speak about it at first, thinking that the electric male would soon return his mind for reality, only to get worried as time went on and Roy had yet to exit his mind. Soon, the curiosity and slight worry became unbearable before Cynder had gone to ask the male who was no older than her if he was all right.

"So come on, what's on your mind?" Cynder asks again with a slightly brighter smile

"I think… Memories…. I can't remember them specifically, but I know they're there…." Roy admits quietly with a sigh as he began to walk after the group at the back, Cynder trailing along next to him as she and the electric dragon took Yami and Dante's place of creating a trail with their tail blades.

"Well that's good…" Cynder says with a gentle smile. "Cause then that means there's a chance you can remember them sooner, am I right?" She asks with a slight tilt of her head and a smirk, Roy blinking in thought and surprise before smiling.

"Yeah I guess it is." He agrees having never really thought about it that way. "Thank you Cynder."

Cynder nods before looking ahead, Roy unconsciously beginning to stare at her for a minute before quickly and awkwardly looking away with a small blush.

"Well, someone seems interested." Ember notes with a small smile, having watched the two's conversation play out before looking at Mysti, who continued to ask who.

"Roy in Cynder." Ember says with a little happy chuckle. Mysti paused to think about the words of the older dragoness before letting out a little cute giggle.

"I see." She says with a big smile before looking at Ember. "Kind of like you are to Flame right?" She asks, Ember's face almost immediately turning into the same color as the mentioned fire dragon's hide.

"H-huh? No I don't!" She hastily replied before taking a deep breath to regain her composure, though that didn't get rid of the ruby scales that now existed on her face. "W-what made you think that?" Mysti smiled brightly at her friend before looking ahead as she began skipping.

"I just know." The ice dragoness simply states with a giggle, Ember staring after her confusedly until squeaking as she heard a certain dragon speak from right next to her.

"Well that was weird." He states half dully, Ember beginning to mentally panic, as she was worried the male had heard everything that was said.

"W-What did you hear?!" She asked hastily, Flame looking at her confusedly before jumping slightly as Ember repeated herself with a louder and slightly menacing voice.

"Nothing! Just her saying 'I just know'! Nothing else I promise." Flame quickly answers, Ember staring at him for a couple of moments longing before mentally sighing and smiling.

"Good. Let's go." She says as she continues onward. Flame scratched his head with his tail at the dragoness' odd behavior before shrugging and trailing behind her.

Meanwhile Dante was looking around at the scenery, half scared/half amazed by the beautifully green forest life. Being new to all the sensations and experiences for he hadn't gone out much in his way younger days, much preferring to stay with his parents and practice his fire element. Cause of this, not only had the fire dragon missed a lot of the experiences of seeing the outside world and satisfying curiosity, but his social skills had suffered hard as the other members of the group have learned firsthand.

"Hey Dante." Yami calls to the younger male, Dante quickly snapping out of his little world and looking at the electric dragoness cautiously.

"Y-yes?" Dante asks a little quietly, the yellow dragoness staring at him for a minute or two before stubbornly stating.

"Try not to stay in your little world too long, if we get ambushed from your end, then it's going to be your fault. And if you end up getting lost, I'm not going to help find you." Came her cold voice, which immediately put some pain in the small dragon's heart. Dante gave a small sad nod as he quickly trailed behind the electric dragoness before freezing entirely.

"Do… Do you guys hear that…?" The red dragon asks quietly, Yami raising an eyebrow at Dante before looking around, Cynder noticing this and telling the others to halt as well.

"Why what's up?" Grail asks with big curious eyes before jumping slightly as he was shushed by Mysti, silence then followed the group of 12 as they all paid careful attention to their surroundings.

"Guys…. I think it's more than one thing…" Dante says with fear evident in his voice, Yami giving him a look of slight surprise and frustration before looking out to the forest again. Many minutes passed, many agonizing minutes of silence, almost as if nothing was there, but the faint sounds of feet, and shuffling would always suggest otherwise, and keep the group on their toes. The pressure and suspense that came from waiting so long was starting to settle into the group, some already preparing their elements or weapons, while others were getting more frantic. And in the meantime, whatever was watching the group continued to watch and watch….

 ***Crack*!**

This sound alone immediately caught everyone's attention as they all looked at the source, which came from behind their electric male. Roy immediately turning a sharp ninety degrees as he quickly looked behind him.

Only to see nothing.

The group of travelers only had a moment to stare in confusion before two loud yelps came from Sparx and Zoey, both falling to the floor as before they had known it, their wings were frozen.

It was like a flash of light, as soon as they registered the dragonfly and fairy from falling to the floor, arrows flew straight into all of the dragon's wings, all of them grunting or roaring as their limbs were damaged save for Dante, who had heard the arrows been launched and moved out of the way at the last second, the crimson dragon looking around in fear before jumping into the air as another batch of arrows had been fired at his legs flew passed under him.

"Guys! J-Jump!" He yelled quickly, the others following the command without a second thought save for Grail, who had quickly built a shield around himself with his earth, with more arrows flying under the group as soon as they left the ground for that moment, the ones that were aimed for Grail digging into the dirt but otherwise un-harming the dragon inside.

"What the hell?!" Flame said loudly before firing multiple fireballs in the directions he had seen the arrows come from, Hunter, Ember and Yami soon doing the same while Bianca quickly started casting a spell. But the sorceress soon halted as the rain of attacks ended as soon as it started.

Cynder halted and glanced around for any sign of other attacks before quickly running to the aid of the two fallen creatures of flight.

"Sparx! Zoey!" Cynder calls running over to the two while grunting at her injured bleeding wings, the dragoness looking down at her friends who looked up at her with helpless expressions, Zoey getting on her legs and standing up as she looked over at Sparx, who couldn't move at all.

"Wha… What the hell was that?!" Sparx asks in a panicking voice, getting no answer as the dragons, the cheetah, and the rabbit all listened out for any attacks. After nothing had happened, Yami carefully shuffled over to Dante.

"Nice job squirt… Looks like you won't be as useless as I-" The electric dragoness started to say before being shoved down to her side by the youngest fire dragon, the dragoness' anger spiking before a loud bang and a yelp was heard, the group quickly looking over as Dante screamed and covered his eyes and ears with his wings.

"Flash Bang?!" Hunter says in surprise before another louder bang from behind him was heard followed by a strong gust of wind and a scream as Grail flung across the small forest and slammed side first into a tree, the remains of an arrow and some pieces of burnt metal and rope where his shield use to be.

" **Grail!"** Mysti yelled out in fear before dropping to the floor as an arrow flew pass her and hit a tree, soon exploding and sending the dragoness dragging across the ground on her paws with a grunt, Roy looking at the others before immediately firing multiple bolts of lightning erratically into the forest, giving the group a moment to gather themselves.

"Whoever's attacking us was trained to specifically fight dragons." Flame states as he pulls a still surprised Yami to her feet, Ember running over to the whimpering Dante to help calm the dragon down, Cynder charging a purple light in her mouth while Bianca used heat spells to carefully thaw both Zoey's and Sparx's wings.

"Grail!" Mysti calls as she limps over to the earth dragon who groaned and slowly rose to his feet with a cough, the male looking at Mysti and giving her a nod as to lie her worries to rest.

"It's only going to bruise…" He said with a small smile, Mysti gave a small smile of her own back in joy at the earth dragon's safety before she and Grail looked at the others in worry.

"That was a flash bang, and there's only one specific civilization I know that has been able to tie flash bangs and bombs to arrows and still use them so efficiently." Hunter informs looking around for any sign of whether his assumptions were correct or incorrect. Yami blinking as she stared at Dante who Ember was softly talking to as to try and help with the pain for a moment before shaking her head and looking at the cheetah with a fierce glare in her eyes.

"And exactly what civilization is that?! Just spit it out already before-." The dragoness stopped talking as everyone heard Roy yelp in pain, Cynder looking over with wide eyes as multiple arrows were embedded skin deep in the golden dragon's chest with small bombs attached to them, Roy looking in surprise before screaming as they exploded and sent the dragon flying into another tree nearby, his chest being badly wounded and bleeding, the bombs seemingly made to specifically incapacitate the male. Cynder stared with wide eyes for a moment as her mind tricked her into seeing purple scales instead of golden before the dragoness' pupils faded slightly and the sclera glowed, the dragoness firing a constant beam of convexity straight into the forest and turning a full three sixty degree turn as to drag the beam into all the attackers around them. The others quickly dropping to the ground as to not be caught in the former terror of the skies fury, with Ember having to push the temporarily blind and deaf Dante onto the floor for his own protection.

After what felt like countless minutes of the constantly roaring boom sound from the beam of convexity tearing through the forest and environment, the destructive beam finally stopped, Cynder's posture weakening as the dragoness panted heavily from using so much energy, Flame immediately getting up and running over to Roy to check the dragon's condition. Cynder slowly raised her head out of exhaustion to look over as Flame saw Roy's chest moving very quickly.

"He's unconscious but he's still alive…" The fire dragon says with a heavy sigh, everyone else finally relaxing as it seemed the fight was finally over. Mysti helping Grail stand up as Yami watched Ember continue to check on Dante, the dragoness softly trying to goat the male into opening his eyes.

"Come on Dante, it's not going to get better if you keep your eyes closed just slowly open them, slowly." She asks softly and quietly, the male shaking and whimpering as he slowly opened his eyes before closing them and covering it with his wings.

"I-it stings!" He yelps loudly, Ember making a soft shushing noise to help calm the frantic male down.

"I know it stings but you have to ignore it, keep your eyes covered with your wings and slowly open them, please just trust me." She asks gently, getting a nod from the male as he soon stopped sniffling in pain and went silent.

"O-okay…. Now w-what do I do…?" He asks quietly, his voice still shaky while Ember smiled slightly.

"Now just wait a while before slowly remove your wings from your eyes, okay?" She asks quietly. Dante nodding as Yami continued to watch before looking over at Hunter and storming over.

"Answer me damn it!" She suddenly growls, Hunter looking at her as she got in the cheetah's face. "What the hell attacked us?!" She questions, Hunter staying silent for a moment before speaking.

"There is a species that I thought had been wiped out in the time of Malefor's awakening, one that had trained themselves to specifically fight dragons and so became one of the most skilled warrior civilizations second to the dragons themselves." The cheetah informs before blinking in surprise as he looked around him, Yami about to demand the male to continue before she noticed the arrow pointed at her head, the others all freezing up as they all looked at the many arrows and weapons pointed at them.

"Aw damn I knew it, we're gonna die! We're all gonna die!" Sparx yells in fear as multiple creatures stood out of the burnt remains of the small area of forest, all of them looking human from the waist up, but their hips and legs that of goats, Hunter let out a small growl before he was suddenly grabbed from behind and felt a sword pressed against his neck.

"I suggest you all lay down before your pal loses his throat." Came a feminine voice from the creature that was holding Hunter captive, everyone looking over at the cheetah in fear and surprise as Hunter calmly looked back at the group.

One by one, each member of the group slowly laid down on the floor, all glaring at the hostile creatures that threatened their lives, Cynder staring at the unconscious Roy who had three of these woodland attackers guarding him, but the dragoness laid down eventually, Yami glancing around slowly at the group as they each grunted as they were poked with a small dagger. Soon, each one was losing their consciousness, starting from Dante, and going to Ember and Flame, then Mysti and Grail, then finally Bianca. Sparx and Zoey were left alone as any dosage could possibly kill them, the dragonfly hyperventilating while the fairy watched with eyes wide with fear, Yami then growled as she was poked as well, she then looked up at Hunter as he calmly looked back down at her, the dragoness' eyes slowly closing as she heard the cheetah say the name of the species that had attacked and successfully captured the group of 12.

"Fauns."

* * *

 **And there you have it, chapter 9. Once again, I am very sorry for my second-long disappearance, and the probably short chapter … But now after some good old inspiration, I should be getting back in the game of making this story, I hope the action was good and that you all stay for the next segment. This is KDS2, see you all next chapter and take care everybody!**


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